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PNAS retracts paper linked to ex-Ohio State researcher who had chemistry PhD revoked

Researchers from The Ohio State University and The Scripps Research Institute are retracting a 2013 paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences after they uncovered data irregularities.

The retraction notice for “Somatic hypermutation maintains antibody thermodynamic stability during affinity maturation,” will appear online on Sept. 5. The paper purported to find clues about what makes antibodies stable at different temperatures. In a press release issued at the time of publication, corresponding author Thomas Magliery, of The Ohio State University, said the paper might help pharmaceutical companies make better antibody-based drugs. It has been cited 36 times, according to Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science.

At some point — we’re not exactly sure when — the authors discovered that the antibody stability data was suspect. According to the notice: Continue reading PNAS retracts paper linked to ex-Ohio State researcher who had chemistry PhD revoked

Journal flags four papers by researcher in Spain over figure issues noted on PubPeer

A journal has issued expression of concerns (EOCs) for four papers after a concerned reader notified the editors of issues in several figures.

According to the EOCs, the Journal of Cell Science (JCS) discussed the concerns with the corresponding author, José Ignacio Rodriguez-Crespo, and subsequently notified his institution, Complutense University of Madrid. Last year, all four papers were questioned on PubPeer (1, 2, 3, 4).

The journal’s executive editor, Sharon Ahmad, told us: Continue reading Journal flags four papers by researcher in Spain over figure issues noted on PubPeer

Author cops to “randomly” choosing data for figures in paper, colleagues say

On April 17th, Mathieu Bollen, a researcher at KU Leuven in Belgium, received a notice from PubPeer: A paper he had published in 2013 appeared to have data duplications.

The article, “Maternal Embryonic Leucine Zipper Kinase (MELK) Reduces Replication Stress in Glioblastoma Cells,” published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, offered an explanation for why elevated levels of the MELK protein are associated with growth of a particular kind of brain tumor, glioblastoma. Several clinical trials are investigating MELK inhibitors as cancer treatments.

Bollen, the paper’s corresponding author, told Retraction Watch that one instance of image duplication, the inclusion of a gel-band from an unrelated experiment to represent a control, was “worrisome” but easily explainable:

Continue reading Author cops to “randomly” choosing data for figures in paper, colleagues say

“It was an honest mistake:” Author retracts and replaces chemistry paper 15 years later

In 2001, Chris Orvig was happy when his team had synthesized a molecule with potential therapeutic applications. He and his colleagues published their findings in a 2002 paper in Inorganic Chemistry.

Over a decade later, Orvig discovered a pivotal error in the paper: The authors had misidentified the compound.

Orvig, a professor of chemistry at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, told us: Continue reading “It was an honest mistake:” Author retracts and replaces chemistry paper 15 years later

Engineering journal removes article co-authored by former president of Iran

Does failing to disclose that you were once a leader in the “Axis of Evil” deserve retraction?

An engineering journal has pulled a 2017 paper whose authors included Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, former president of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Ahmadinejad, the notorious anti-Semitic and anti-West president of Iran from 2005 to 2013, was a civil engineer before entering politics — and remained active in the field while serving in government. But his failure to note his old day job appears to have cost him a paper in the electronic edition of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Journal. Continue reading Engineering journal removes article co-authored by former president of Iran

Carlo Croce, OSU cancer researcher under investigation, retracts paper

Carlo Croce

A researcher whose work has come under repeated scrutiny has retracted a 2008 paper for “errors that occurred in the construction” of various figures.

Carlo Croce, the corresponding author of the newly retracted paper, has been dogged by misconduct accusations for years — as recently described in the New York Times. His employer, The Ohio State University, has recently re-opened an investigation into his work. Seven of his papers have now been retracted, and fourteen have been corrected for image and text issues such as manipulation, duplication, and errors, as well as two others earning expressions of concern.

Here’s the retraction notice for “Fhit Interaction with Ferredoxin Reductase Triggers Generation of Reactive Oxygen Species and Apoptosis of Cancer Cells,” in the Journal of Biological Chemistry: Continue reading Carlo Croce, OSU cancer researcher under investigation, retracts paper

When is a citation not enough?

Last year, Boris Ratnikov was reading a paper and saw a familiar image.

He quickly realized: The image was from a 2012 paper he’d written, but wasn’t cited. The 2016 Cell Metabolism paper he was reading had copied a figure from his 2012 PLOS ONE paper without referencing it. 

In September 2016, Ratnikov, who is based at Sanford-Burnham-Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, in La Jolla, California, emailed an editor at Cell Metabolism to express his concern about the duplication and omitted citation.  

Although the journal told us it “carefully investigated Dr Ratnikov’s concerns,” the editors ultimately did not think the literature needs correcting.

Does failing to cite a paper constitute plagiarism? Continue reading When is a citation not enough?

Ketamine-depression paper retracted following investigation at Yale

A psychiatry journal has retracted a 2011 paper exploring the use of ketamine to treat patients with severe depression following an investigation at Yale University.

According to the retraction notice, Yale determined that the paper, published in the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, did not accurately describe the research. But the study’s lead author, Gregory Larkin, says he believes the retraction “is wholly unnecessary, serving neither patients nor science.”

Continue reading Ketamine-depression paper retracted following investigation at Yale

Case closed? Fired Pfizer researcher slated for seven retractions

Pfizer has discovered two additional papers that merit retraction from the lab of a former employee. One of the papers, published in Clinical Cancer Research, was retracted earlier this month.

Last year, Pfizer requested retractions of five papers from the lab of breast cancer researcher Min-Jean Yin, who was fired after an investigation revealed image duplication. The papers were first questioned on PubPeer. By April 2017, all five papers had been retracted.

After the initial probe, the pharmaceutical giant conducted a follow-up review of papers originating from Yin’s lab (which Leonid Schneider posted about on May 23). A spokesperson for the company told us that the review revealed two more articles that merited retraction “in light of data integrity issues relating to the figures therein.” The 2013 paper in Clinical Cancer Research was retracted earlier this month at Pfizer’s request. On May 1, 2017, Pfizer asked PLOS ONE to retract a 2013 paper. Continue reading Case closed? Fired Pfizer researcher slated for seven retractions

Publisher flags paper on same-sex parenting after neo-Nazi group cites it

A publisher has issued an expression of concern (EoC) about a study that claimed children with same-sex parents were at greater risk of depression and abuse, after posters using statistics from the paper to support a homophobic message appeared in Australia and the US.

On Aug. 21, several news websites reported that these posters were appearing in Melbourne, Australia, citing claims from a 2016 paper published in Depression Research and Treatment, which said that children with same-sex parents are more at risk for depression, abuse, and obesity than children with opposite-sex parents. The poster had also appeared previously in Minneapolis and has been traced to a neo-Nazi group, as reported by HuffPost Australia. Australia is preparing for a national, non-binding, mail-in vote on whether to provide marriage equality for same-sex couples.

The EoC mechanism, which was chosen by the journal’s publisher, Hindawi, is an unusual choice here. The paper’s author, D. Paul Sullins, a sociology professor at The Catholic University of America and the paper’s author, told Retraction Watch that Hindawi contacted him Aug. 21 about the decision. Initially, he told us he didn’t have any “particular objection to it,” but later told us he changed his mind after he read more about COPE’s guidelines for EoCs: Continue reading Publisher flags paper on same-sex parenting after neo-Nazi group cites it