Author: Ivan Oransky

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The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Journal editor in chief who published controversial Covid papers resigns
• Psychiatrist in Canada faked brain imaging data in grant application, U.S. federal watchdog says
• Why misconduct could keep scientists from earning Highly Cited Researcher designations, and how our database plays a part
• BMJ says it’s “an ongoing effort” to find articles by plagiarizing concussion researcher Paul McCrory
• Another ‘Majorana’ particle paper retracted, this time from Science
• Mathematician requests two retractions for “subtle inaccuracies” 

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 270. There are more than 36,000 retractions in our database — which powers retraction alerts in EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most retractions lately — or our list of top 10 most highly cited retracted papers?

Here’s what was happening elsewhere (some of these items may be paywalled, metered access, or require free registration to read):

Continue reading Weekend reads: ‘Illegal practices in palaeontology’; ‘a fake badge of integrity’; researcher jailed

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance.

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Exclusive: UCLA found a longtime researcher faked data – but made a strange mistake in its report
• Deceptive Academic Journals: An excerpt from The Predator Effect
• Pain researchers lose three papers after Cochrane group questioned data
• Author critical of study involving abortion hires lawyers after journal flags paper
• “A huge relief”: Journal takes down plagiarized paper after Retraction Watch reporting

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 268. There are more than 36,000 retractions in our database — which powers retraction alerts in EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most retractions lately — or our list of top 10 most highly cited retracted papers?

Here’s what was happening elsewhere (some of these items may be paywalled, metered access, or require free registration to read):

Continue reading Weekend reads: A whistleblower finds possible misconduct — again; embracing failure; radical transparency for journals

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance.

This week, it’s a special double edition of Weekend Reads, thanks to a site outage that meant we couldn’t post last Saturday. The last two weeks at Retraction Watch featured:

• How many ducks do you need to line up to get a publication retracted?
• Exclusive: Elsevier retracting 500 papers for shoddy peer review
• “Horrible!”: Scientist finds plagiarized copy of his paper – and can’t get the journal that published it to pay attention
• NIH asked to replace a PI on grants after university said she violated policy
• When editors confuse direct criticism with being impolite, science loses
• Iran’s science minister earns four retractions
• Meet a sleuth whose work has resulted in more than 850 retractions
• US federal research watchdog wants your input (deadline passed 10/31)

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 267. There are more than 36,000 retractions in our database — which powers retraction alerts in EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most retractions lately — or our list of top 10 most highly cited retracted papers?

Here’s what was happening elsewhere (some of these items may be paywalled, metered access, or require free registration to read):

Continue reading Weekend reads, double edition: Science’s ‘nasty Photoshopping problem’; Dr. Oz’s publication ban; image manipulation detection software

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance.

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Paper co-authored by Australian journalist Maryanne Demasi to be marked with expression of concern
• Catch and kill: What it’s like to try to get a NEJM paper corrected
• Paper co-authored by sleuth Elisabeth Bik marked with expression of concern
• What happened when a psychology professor used a peer-reviewed paper to praise his own blog – and slam others’
• Former medical school dean earns sixth retraction
• Elsevier journal retracts nearly 50 papers because they were each accepted on the “positive advice of one illegitimate reviewer report”
• ‘Mugged by stealth’: Team finds their paper has been plagiarized not once, but twice

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 266. There are more than 36,000 retractions in our database — which powers retraction alerts in EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most retractions lately — or our list of top 10 most highly cited retracted papers?

Here’s what was happening elsewhere (some of these items may be paywalled, metered access, or require free registration to read):

Continue reading Weekend reads: A journal ends accept/reject in peer review; more of a Nobelist’s work comes under scrutiny; CNRS director says what he thinks of sleuths

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance.

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• In 1987, the NIH found a paper contained fake data. It was just retracted.
• ‘A big pain’: Professor up to six retractions for plagiarism and manipulated peer review
• ‘A display of extreme academic integrity’: A grad student who found a key error praises the original author
• Concussion researcher Paul McCrory earns nine more retractions, nearly 40 expressions of concern

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 265. There are more than 36,000 retractions in our database — which powers retraction alerts in EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most retractions lately — or our list of top 10 most highly cited retracted papers?

Here’s what was happening elsewhere (some of these items may be paywalled, metered access, or require free registration to read):

Continue reading Weekend reads: A bizarre turn in a plagiarism case; lessons of the ‘replication crisis’; special issues redux

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance.

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Paper by gene therapy Zolgensma developer retracted because of discrepancies in mouse survival rates
• Med school vice dean says he’s correcting paper amid negative misconduct inquiry
• A grad student finds a ‘typo’ in a psychedelic study’s script that leads to a retraction
• When failure to correct a flawed paper could put patients’ lives at risk
• Frankincense extract paper is 30th retracted by former MD Anderson researcher who once threatened to sue Retraction Watch

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 265. There are more than 36,000 retractions in our database — which powers retraction alerts in EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most retractions lately — or our list of top 10 most highly cited retracted papers?

Here’s what was happening elsewhere (some of these items may be paywalled, metered access, or require free registration to read):

Continue reading Weekend reads: Whistleblowers win a victory; a look at COVID-19 retractions; journals as sewage treatment plants

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance.

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Dental school dean up to five retractions for cancer research papers
• Can you explain what these 1,500 papers are doing in this journal?
• Exclusive: Hindawi and Wiley to retract over 500 papers linked to peer review rings
• When emails asking to withdraw manuscripts started repeating themselves, an editor got suspicious

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 264. There are nearly 36,000 retractions in our database — which powers retraction alerts in EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most retractions lately — or our list of top 10 most highly cited retracted papers?

Here’s what was happening elsewhere (some of these items may be paywalled, metered access, or require free registration to read):

Continue reading Weekend reads: Troubles in Romania; an erroneous erratum about fraud; Nature and discriminatory science

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance.

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Journal says ivermectin study met standard for ‘credible science’
• Former Iranian government official up to two retractions, five corrections
• A journal did nothing about plagiarism allegations for a year. Then the tweets (and an email from Retraction Watch) came.
• Fired postdoc faked recommendation letters from supervisor, OSU alleges
• UCLA walks back claim that application for $50 million grant included fake data

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 261. There are more than 35,000 retractions in our database — which powers retraction alerts in EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most retractions lately — or our list of top 10 most highly cited retracted papers?

Here’s what was happening elsewhere (some of these items may be paywalled, metered access, or require free registration to read):

Continue reading Weekend reads: ‘Papermill alarm’ software; questions about a study of prosthetics; what do publishers stand for?