Doing the right thing: Journal clears unknowing author of plagiarism

ausjforsciHere’s a nice case of a journal taking pains to clear the name of an author.

Last summer we wrote about a case of plagiarism involving two authors from India who’d published a paper on biometrics in the Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences.

Now — seven months later, we’ll note — one of those authors has gotten a reprieve. A notice in the journal states that the researcher had nothing to do with the misconduct.

At the time, the notice for the paper, “Multiple facial soft biometrics for person identification system,” read: Continue reading Doing the right thing: Journal clears unknowing author of plagiarism

Pharmaceutical journal retracts antibiotics paper with dodgy data, with an unclear notice

aapsAAPS PharmSciTech, a journal of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, has retracted a 2013 paper by a group from India. The reason appears to be manipulated data, although the wording of the notice leaves that open to interpretation.

The article, “Design and Formulation Technique of a Novel Drug Delivery System for Azithromycin and Its Anti-Bacterial Activity Against Staphylococcus aureus,” was written by a trio of researchers at the Center for Nanobiotechnology at VIT University in Vellore.

The article, published online in June, purported to find that: Continue reading Pharmaceutical journal retracts antibiotics paper with dodgy data, with an unclear notice

“Protracted and unresolved authors dispute” and “striking similarities” lead to two retractions

panafmedjrIt’s been a busy month for retractions at the Pan African Medical Journal (PAMJ) — dedicated to “Better health through knowledge sharing and information dissemination.”

The journal has retracted a 2013 article by a group from Bangalore, India, for plagiarism. And unlike the authors, the editors didn’t mince words.

The paper, “Detection of ESBL among ampc producing enterobacteriaceae using inhibitor-based method,” concluded that: Continue reading “Protracted and unresolved authors dispute” and “striking similarities” lead to two retractions

‘Pseudoknots’ a pseudopaper, retracted for plagiarism

bioinformationlogoThe journal Bioinformation has retracted a 2009 article by a group of researchers from India.

The paper was titled “Targeting pseudoknots in H5N1 hemagglutinin using designed aptamers,” and was written by Priyanka Dhar, Sayak Ganguli and Abhijit Datta, of the Defence Institute of High Altitude Research and the Bioinformatics Centre at Presidency College in Kolkata.

Under a heading, “Reader Feedback”, the retraction notice states: Continue reading ‘Pseudoknots’ a pseudopaper, retracted for plagiarism

Paper on refolded mountain range a reproduction, now retracted

JAESThe Journal of Asian Earth Sciences has retracted a 2004 article by a scholar in India who resused text from a previous work on which he was a co-author.

The article, “Finite strain and deformation from a refolded region of the Dudatoli-Almora Crystalline, Kumaun Lesser Himalaya,” was written by Hari B. Srivastava, of Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi. Here’s what it had to say: Continue reading Paper on refolded mountain range a reproduction, now retracted

“Copyright violation” fells tapeworm paper

jparadisWe have a report about a case report of a “rare presentation” that doesn’t seem to be as rare as the authors would like is to think it is.

Here’s what we’re talking about:

Continue reading “Copyright violation” fells tapeworm paper

Dental journal pulls article for “sufficient evidence” of plagiarism

ImageA group of dental researchers from India has lost their 2008 paper on the salubrious effects of coconut water on periodontal health.

The article, “Comparison of coconut water, propolis, HBSS, and milk on PDL cell survival,” appeared in the Journal of Endodontics, an Elsevier title. It has been cited 24 times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge.

Here’s the abstract: Continue reading Dental journal pulls article for “sufficient evidence” of plagiarism

Journal dumps grain paper for controversial data

productionThe journal Tropical Animal Health and Production has retracted a 2013 paper by a group from India whose data on feeding young cows special wheat wasn’t quite what it was cracked up to be.

The article, “Nutritional evaluation of wheat straw treated with Crinipellis sp. in Sahiwal calves,” found that: Continue reading Journal dumps grain paper for controversial data

Punked 2.0: Indian engineer uses “My Cousin Vinny” to publish fake paper, expose “science” conference

Joe Pesci, engineering scholar, by Yausser via Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/yausser/
Joe Pesci, engineering scholar, by Yausser via Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/yausser/

A technology entrepreneur from Pune named Navin Kabra has pulled back the sheets on a local conference, the International Conference on Recent Innovations in Engineering, Science & Technology, by submitting two bogus manuscripts for presentation — both of which were accepted.

Although the conference organizers were charging 6,000 rupees — about $100 — apiece for submission, Kabra bargained them down to half that amount

by haggling with them in the same way we haggle with vegetable vendors.

Kabra, in an illuminating post on his blog titled “How I published a fake paper, and why it is the fault of our education system” that was first covered by mid-day.com, says Continue reading Punked 2.0: Indian engineer uses “My Cousin Vinny” to publish fake paper, expose “science” conference

Cell update: Co-corresponding author let go from Belgian university; retraction notice language changed

cell november 2013We’ve learned more about the circumstances behind a Cell retraction that we covered last week.

First, one of the two corresponding authors left the institution where he most recently worked. Belgium’s VIB Ghent told us that Pankaj Dhonukshe was no longer employed there and said: Continue reading Cell update: Co-corresponding author let go from Belgian university; retraction notice language changed