by author – Page 26 – Retraction Watch

Danish high court clears Pedersen in misconduct case

Lawyers one, scientists nil.

Danish judges have overruled scientists in that nation, concluding that a panel of experts erred in finding that physiologist Bente Klarlund Pedersen, of the University of Copenhagen, was guilty of misconduct.

Last September, Pedersen announced that she would fight the ruling of the Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty (DCSD, Danish acronym UVVU), which had said she had committed misconduct in four of 12 articles it had examined.

As we reported then, Pedersen’s case is tied to that of another Copenhagen scientist, Milena Penkowa, with whom she had collaborated and who also has been found guilty of scientific misdeeds. (The new ruling does not address Penkowa.) Continue reading Danish high court clears Pedersen in misconduct case

Publisher and uni go head to head over disputed images in diabetes papers

The ~~State University of Campinas~~ University of Campinas and the American Diabetes Association disagree strongly over how to handle disputed images from faculty member Mario Saad, who is suing the ADA to prevent retraction of his papers.

While the ~~State University of Campinas~~ University of Campinas (Unicamp) acknowledges that 2 of Saad’s papers contain “mistakes”, it concluded there was “not an intention in the actions of the authors,” and the mistakes did not have a negative impact on the scientific community. Ultimately: “the studies published have their own strength, are healthy and were not artificially strengthened by the incorrect images.”

In response, however, Saad’s lawsuit says the ADA asked the school to reinvestigate the articles, and refused to accept any papers from Unicamp faculty in any ADA journals until the issues are resolved.

The ADA has issued four expressions of concern in Saad’s research published in its flagship journal, Diabetes. Saad’s lawsuit aims to prevent the journal from retracting those papers, and asks for monetary compensation.

Retraction Watch has obtained a report of the investigation by Unicamp and Saad’s lawsuit. You can read the full lawsuit here, and the investigation report here.

Here is an excerpt from the Unicamp’s findings: Continue reading Publisher and uni go head to head over disputed images in diabetes papers

RW cited in scientist’s $8 million suit against university

Rakesh Kumar, via George Washington University

Maybe the polar vortex is to blame (chilling effect, and all), but it must be lawsuit season!

First it was Mario Saad, who sued the American Diabetes Association to prevent them from retracting his papers in flagship journal Diabetes. Now Rakesh Kumar is getting in on the action. According to George Washington University student paper the GW Hatchet, Kumar was put on administrative leave from his position as chair of the department of biochemistry and molecular medicine in May 2014, though he was still allowed to run his lab until July 25. In response, he’s suing the university for breach of contract and emotional distress. You can read the whole thing here.

Kumar is asking for $8 million, claiming that GW failed to go through the firing procedure outlined in his tenure contract and owes him because he can’t get a new job.

The exact nature of the accusations against Kumar, who has had five papers corrected and two retracted for problematic images, is unclear. According to the suit, a copy of which RW has obtained: Continue reading RW cited in scientist’s $8 million suit against university

Diabetes researcher sues journal to prevent retractions of papers cited more than 600 times

Mario A. Saad, who last year retracted a paper for plagiarism, is now suing the American Diabetes Association over four expressions of concern in its flagship journal, Diabetes.

As reported in the Boston Business Journal, Saad’s lawsuit claims that his institution, the State University of Campinas, investigated two articles at the journal’s behest. The American Diabetes Association was unhappy with the results, and asked the school to reopen the investigation, including two additional papers.

Saad is suing to prevent the journal from retracting the papers, in addition to monetary compensation.

Continue reading Diabetes researcher sues journal to prevent retractions of papers cited more than 600 times

Fourth retraction appears for cancer researcher Anil Jaiswal

The hits keep coming for University of Maryland researcher Anil Jaiswal.

The latest retraction for the cell biologist is in Cancer Research, for a 2007 paper about ways in which the cell tries to protect the tumor suppressor p53. Like the first Jaiswal retraction we covered, the latest notice specifically taps figure duplication as the cause of death, “as a result of an error.” The other two retractions gave no explanation for the withdrawal.

Here’s the notice: Continue reading Fourth retraction appears for cancer researcher Anil Jaiswal

Second retraction appears for former accounting professor James Hunton

It took five months, but in December a second retraction popped up for disgraced accounting professor James E. Hunton.

Hunton resigned his teaching post at Bentley University in December of 2012. An extensive investigation by Bentley showed that not only was the data in two papers falsified. Hunton also lied about non-existent confidentiality agreements and tried to destroy evidence of his lies by unsuccessfully wiping his laptop and changing metadata on files.

The first paper Hunton was accused of faking, ironically about accounting fraud, was retracted in 2012.

Here’s the notice for “The relationship between perceived tone at the top and earnings quality”: Continue reading Second retraction appears for former accounting professor James Hunton

Chemists Bielawski and Wiggins up to eight expressions of concern, one retraction

Two researchers who already had three expressions of concern under their belts have five more, plus a retraction.

Kelly Wiggins and Christopher Bielawski share authorship on all the papers in question. After the first set of EoCs, Bielawski, at the time a PI at UT Austin, told Chemistry and Engineering News that a “former lab member” had admitted to faking the data. The recent retraction indicates that University of Texas at Austin’s Office of Research Integrity formally investigated the lab, and determined that Bielawski was telling the truth about a former lab member being to blame.

Bielawski has since taken a post at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea. He told us that move was unrelated to anything that happened at UT Austin, but declined to answer other questions. Wiggins got a postdoc at the University of Illinois, which an Illinois spokesperson confirmed lasted from July 1 2013 to January 22 2014; we’re waiting to hear back on our question about whether her departure had anything to do with misconduct.

Here’s the retraction notice for “A Mechanochemical Approach to Deracemization,” in Wiley journal Angewandte Chemie: Continue reading Chemists Bielawski and Wiggins up to eight expressions of concern, one retraction

Award-winning plant researcher correcting several papers critiqued on PubPeer

Olivier Voinnet, a researcher at ETH in Zurich and the winner of the 2013 Rössler Prize, is correcting a number of papers following critiques of more than a dozen of his studies on PubPeer.

The work appears in journals including Cell and PNAS. Voinnet’s co-author on several of the papers, David Baulcombe, who is also highly decorated, left this comment on relevant PubPeer entries: Continue reading Award-winning plant researcher correcting several papers critiqued on PubPeer

PLOS Genetics investigating paper by Ariel Fernandez

Ariel Fernandez‘s list of papers with editorial asterisks next to them grew again this week.

Fernandez has had one paper retracted, two papers subject to Expressions of Concern, including one from Nature, and another put on hold over data concerns. He threatened to sue us for covering one of the Expressions of Concern.

Here’s the “Notice from PLOS Genetics” for “Protein Under-Wrapping Causes Dosage Sensitivity and Decreases Gene Duplicability:”

Please be advised that PLOS is working with the authors on an investigation regarding one or more issues that have been raised with respect to the content or authorship of this paper.

We asked Fernandez for more details. He did not provide any, saying only that the criticisms of the work “have no scientific value” because they were made anonymously: Continue reading PLOS Genetics investigating paper by Ariel Fernandez

Weekend reads: Sensationalism in science journalism and PR; Beall’s predatory publisher list grows

Happy New Year! This week, we took a look back at 2014. Here’s what was happening elsewhere: Continue reading Weekend reads: Sensationalism in science journalism and PR; Beall’s predatory publisher list grows

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