Category: by country

Remedial math lesson: When does one reference equal an entire paper?

ImageA higher-ed journal has retracted a recent paper by a New Jersey scholar who failed to adequately cite one of her sources.

Trouble is, the researcher did reference the article more than once — raising the question of whether a retraction, rather than a correction, was the right move.

The paper was written by Lynne Kowski, a professor of mathematics at Raritan Valley Community College in New Jersey,  and it appeared online in November 2013 in the Community College Journal of Research and Practice.

Here’s the abstract of the article, “Mathematics Remediation’s Connection to Community College Success:” Continue reading Remedial math lesson: When does one reference equal an entire paper?

Journal reveals real reason for retraction of paper by author who threatened to sue Retraction Watch

cureusLast week, we reported on the retraction of a paper by Benjamin Jacob Hayempour, a researcher who had threatened to sue us last month for even reporting on another of his retractions.

The journal, Cureus, told us at the time that the retraction — in which the article disappeared, without a notice — didn’t have anything to do with fraud or plagiarism. Hayempour said that “In the pursuit of excellent science, I personally withdrew the article temporarily in order to add an extra section which will make the paper more clinically relevant.”

But we now have the whole story, which reads a bit differently. According to a comment left on our post by journal editor-in-chief John Adler, it was intellectual property issues that forced the retraction: Continue reading Journal reveals real reason for retraction of paper by author who threatened to sue Retraction Watch

Spreadsheet error forces loss of Appetite paper on obesity and parenting styles

appetiteThe journal Appetite has retracted a recent paper that purported to show that children whose parents kept a tight fist on the grub were less likely to become obese than those whose parents were more laissez-faire with the feed bag.

The article, “Relation of parenting styles, feeding styles and feeding practices to child overweight and obesity. Direct and moderated effects,” appeared last year. The senior author was Laura Hubbs-Tait, of Oklahoma State University.  Continue reading Spreadsheet error forces loss of Appetite paper on obesity and parenting styles

Shigeaki Kato notches retractions 16 and 17, in PNAS

katoShigeaki Kato has two more retractions, both in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Here’s one of the notices: Continue reading Shigeaki Kato notches retractions 16 and 17, in PNAS

Data manipulation knocks bird virus paper off perch

journalvirolThe Journal of Virology has retracted a 2010 article on avian viruses marred by signs of bogus data.

The paper, “Avian Reovirus Nonstructural Protein p17-Induced G2/M Cell Cycle Arrest and Host Cellular Protein Translation Shutoff Involve Activation of p53-Dependent Pathways,” came from a group at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, in Pingtung, China. It purported to find that: Continue reading Data manipulation knocks bird virus paper off perch

Jeffrey Beall scores a retraction

jaimJeffrey Beall, a scholarly librarian perhaps known best for his list of possible predatory journals, has convinced one of those journals to retract a paper for plagiarism.

Here’s the notice: from the Journal of Advances in Internal Medicine, the official journal of the Society of Internal Medicine of Nepal. Continue reading Jeffrey Beall scores a retraction

Quickest withdrawal ever? Journal yanks paper alleging 800K deaths from Poldermans affair

ehj Just 48 hours after publishing an article by Graham Cole and Darrel Francis last week alleging that Don Poldermans‘ scientific misconduct led to the deaths of some 800,000 Europeans over the past five years by tainting clinical guidelines, the European Heart Journal unceremoniously pulled the paper from its website Friday.

Larry Husten at CardioBrief has been on top of the story. According to Husten: Continue reading Quickest withdrawal ever? Journal yanks paper alleging 800K deaths from Poldermans affair

Book by leading biologist Lewis Wolpert withdrawn from sale for plagiarism

via UCL
Lewis Wolpert, via UCL

A 2011 book by Lewis Wolpert, one of the world’s leading developmental biologists, has been pulled from shelves for plagiarism.

The Guardian reports that the book, You’re Looking Very Well,

…has been found…to contain more than 20 passages that have been taken directly from academic papers, websites and Wikipedia with no indication that they were penned by any author other than Wolpert himself. The book has now been withdrawn from sale.

The newspaper notes that this was not Wolpert’s first plagiarism offense: Continue reading Book by leading biologist Lewis Wolpert withdrawn from sale for plagiarism

Weekend reads: Fraudster calls himself a “foolish coward,” and COPE’s top cases

booksHere’s some of what crossed our desks this week:

Author who threatened to sue Retraction Watch has another paper withdrawn

cureusBenjamin Jacob Hayempour, the researcher who threatened to sue us for asking questions about a retraction for plagiarism, has had another paper withdrawn.

The paper, published online in the journal Cureus, was titled “Novel Determinants of Tumour Radiosensitivity Post-Large-Scale Compound Library Screening” and had been available at http://www.cureus.com/articles/2394-novel-determinants-of-tumour-radiosensitivity-post-large-scale-compound-library-screening since January 13, but that URL now redirects to Cureus’s homepage.

We asked Cureus editor-in-chief John Adler for details, and he responded: Continue reading Author who threatened to sue Retraction Watch has another paper withdrawn