Category: society journal retractions

Retraction appears for stem cell researcher found to have used funds for his company’s gain

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Gerold Feuer in 2008, via Upstate

A stem cell journal is retracting a paper by Gerold Feuer, a researcher at the State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse who was also found to have misused grants.

The Feuer story is complicated. Heralded in 2008 for landing $6.2 million in grants from the New York Stem Cell Board, Feuer was suspended in October 2010 while the university investigated allegations he had misused funds, specifically to funnel state dollars to HuMurine, a company he founded in 2008. In December 2010, Upstate said they had found evidence he had committed 53 acts of financial misconduct, and dismissed him.

From an August 2012 court ruling on a case Feuer brought to fight that dismissal: Continue reading Retraction appears for stem cell researcher found to have used funds for his company’s gain

Cancer cell line mixup leads to retraction

ccr 9-15At team of researchers at MD Anderson Cancer Center has retracted a paper after realizing that the cell lines they were using weren’t what they thought they were.

Here’s the detailed notice: Continue reading Cancer cell line mixup leads to retraction

Spat over tuberculosis study data leads to Expression of Concern

jcmA fight over who owns tuberculosis study data has led the Journal of Clinical Microbiology to publish an Expression of Concern.

Here’s the notice: Continue reading Spat over tuberculosis study data leads to Expression of Concern

Fredrickson-Losada “positivity ratio” paper partially withdrawn

am psychIn 2005, Barbara Fredrickson and Marcial Losada published a paper in American Psychologist making a bold and specific claim:

…the authors predict that a ratio of positive to negative affect at or above 2.9 will characterize individuals in flourishing mental health.

The paper made quite a splash. It has been cited 360 times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge, and formed the basis of a 2009 book by Fredrickson, Positivity: Top-Notch Research Reveals the 3 to 1 Ratio That Will Change Your Life.

But something didn’t sit right with Nick Brown, a psychology grad student at the University of East London. He found the paper’s claims wanting, and contacted Alan Sokal — yes, that Alan Sokal, who published a fake paper in Social Text in 1996. Sokal agreed, and he, Brown, and Harris Friedman published a critique of the paper in July of this year in American Psychologist. Its abstract: Continue reading Fredrickson-Losada “positivity ratio” paper partially withdrawn

That’ll do it: Physics paper retracted for a “pattern that is unphysical”

j phys dLast December, we brought you the story of a math paper that was retracted because it made “no sense mathematically.” Today, we have that retraction’s cousin: A physics paper retracted because some of the data are “unphysical.”

Here’s the notice for “Room temperature ferromagnetism in pure and Co- and Fe-doped CeO2 dilute magnetic oxide: effect of oxygen vacancies and cation valence,” which was published in April 2011 in the Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics: Continue reading That’ll do it: Physics paper retracted for a “pattern that is unphysical”

A real shame: Psychology paper retracted when data behind problematic findings disappear

sjdmThe corresponding author of a paper on whether “a sense of shame heightens the desire for money” has retracted it, he claims, after being unable to repeat his analysis to try to fix an issue in the study.

Here’s the notice for “Shame for money: Shame enhances the incentive value of economic resources,” which appeared in Judgment and Decision Making: Continue reading A real shame: Psychology paper retracted when data behind problematic findings disappear

Retraction of JBC heparan paper shows much to like

jcb726coverWe have knocked the Journal of Biological Chemistry in the past for what we believed to be needless — and unhelpful — obfuscation. And more recently, we have praised the journal for taking what we believe to be positive steps in the direction of greater transparency.

Here, again, we come not to bury JBC but to praise it.

The journal has issued a retraction for a 2011 article by a group of researchers in London, England, led by Stephen Perkins. The paper, “The solution structure of heparan sulfate differs from that of heparin,” purported to show that:
Continue reading Retraction of JBC heparan paper shows much to like

Paper on rare pediatric lung cancer retracted for misstatements, unknowing authors

logo-journalecancermedicalscience (officially in the running for the most cumbersome journal title we’ve run across) has retracted a 2013 case report for a litany of sins.

The article, “Primary extraosseous Ewing sarcoma of the lung in children,” came from a group in France: Nidal Alsit, Clara Fernandez, Jean Luc Michel , Linda Sakhri, Audrey Derouet and Augustin Pirvu.

Or at least that’s what the author information suggested. Continue reading Paper on rare pediatric lung cancer retracted for misstatements, unknowing authors

Paper by NASA scientists retracted for plagiarizing NASA report

레이아웃 1A team of researchers including NASA scientists have retracted a December 2012 article because it plagiarized…a 2000 NASA report.

Here’s the notice for “A Fosmid Cloning Strategy for Detecting the Widest Possible Spectrum of Microbes from the International Space Station Drinking Water System,” published in Genomics & Informatics: Continue reading Paper by NASA scientists retracted for plagiarizing NASA report

Physics journal retracts underwater discharge paper for figure reuse

aipadvancesA trio of researchers from the United States and China are in, um, hot water for inappropriately reusing figures that had appeared in previous publications about liquids.

The article, “Temporally resolved imaging on quenching and re-ignition of nanosecond underwater discharge,” appeared last year in AIP Advances, a title of the American Institute of Physics. The authors were Yong Yang, Young I. Cho and Alexander Fridman. Yang is from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, in Wuhan, and Cho and Fridman are at Drexel University, in Philadelphia.

Here’s the notice: Continue reading Physics journal retracts underwater discharge paper for figure reuse