Leading chemist notches two retractions in one journal, separated by 47 years

inorganica chimica actaA leading chemist at the University of Washington, Larry Dalton, has retracted a 2004 study in Inorganica Chimica Acta, marking his second retraction in the journal in 47 years.

Here’s the new notice: Continue reading Leading chemist notches two retractions in one journal, separated by 47 years

Springer, IEEE withdrawing more than 120 nonsense papers

springerTwo major publishers will remove more than 120 papers created with random paper generator SCIgen, according to Nature.

Richard van Noorden, who has the scoop, reports:ieee Continue reading Springer, IEEE withdrawing more than 120 nonsense papers

Brazilian researcher on 11 retracted papers loses academic post

ufmtDenis de Jesus Lima Guerra, a co-author on 11 chemistry papers that were retracted in 2011 for suspicions of fraud, has lost his position at the Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT).

Bernardo Esteves, who was first to report the news, writes (courtesy Google Translate) that the dismissal was Continue reading Brazilian researcher on 11 retracted papers loses academic post

Fraud, retractions no barrier to US cloning patent for Woo-Suk Hwang

science 2005Woo-Suk Hwang is having quite a comeback.

The cloning researcher’s fall from grace in 2005 and 2006 was covered worldwide, featuring two high-profile retractions from Science and convictions (now under appeal) on charges he embezzled government funds and broke South Korea’s bioethics law. But as Nature reported last month in a profile focusing on Hwang’s Biotech Research Foundation: Continue reading Fraud, retractions no barrier to US cloning patent for Woo-Suk Hwang

Faked HIV vaccine research presentation retracted

retrovirologyIn December, we reported on the case of Dong-Pyou Han, who was found by the Office of Research Integrity to have spiked rabbit blood samples to make it look as though a vaccine for HIV was working.

At the time, Han’s former institution, Iowa State, told us that “one oral presentation and some abstracts will be removed from the web.”

One of those retractions has occurred, in Retrovirology, of “Eliciting broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV-1 that target gp41 MPER.” Here’s the notice: Continue reading Faked HIV vaccine research presentation retracted

Science hasn’t retracted paper that university, NSF investigators wanted withdrawn

Stefan Franzen, via NCSU
Stefan Franzen, via NCSU

On Saturday, we highlighted a great two-part series by Joseph Neff of the News & Observer diving into the story of “Stefan Franzen, a chemistry professor at North Carolina State University who has been trying unsuccessfully to correct the scientific record.” Today, that series became a three-part series, with a new story revealing that an investigation by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) had found “reckless” falsification in the work in question.

One of the key papers in the controversy was published by Lina A. Gugliotti, Daniel L. Feldheim, and Bruce E. Eaton in Science in 2004 and cited 125 times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge. (Eaton is now at the University of Colorado at Boulder.) In 2011, Nature reported on the situation: Continue reading Science hasn’t retracted paper that university, NSF investigators wanted withdrawn

2 for 2: Fraud, plagiarism force retraction of Staph aureus paper

j food sciThe Journal of Food Science has retracted a 2012 paper by Chinese scientists, one of whom copped to having made up data in the paper — which also plagiarized from a 2009 article by other researchers — and forging his co-authors’ names on the manuscript.

The article, “A Multiplex PCR Assay for the Rapid and Sensitive detection of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Simultaneous Discrimination of Staphylococcus aureus from Coagulase-Negative Staphylococci,” appeared online in October 2012 and was written by a group from Northwest A & F University, in Yangling, and Tianshui Normal University.

It has been cited once, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge. From the abstract: Continue reading 2 for 2: Fraud, plagiarism force retraction of Staph aureus paper

Kidney researcher in Switzerland who lost professorship for data manipulation loses two papers

jasnA kidney researcher in Switzerland was lost his professorship in October for manipulating data has retracted two papers.

Pascale Meier left CHUV and University of Lausanne last fall, and this week agreed to leave his clinical position at Valais Hospital after the hospital found “irregularities in the management of nephrology department and hemodialysis funds,” the Swiss media is reporting.

And yesterday, two retractions appeared in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Here’s the notice (sadly, behind a paywall) [see update at end of post]: Continue reading Kidney researcher in Switzerland who lost professorship for data manipulation loses two papers

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

Japan officials allege data cooking in Alzheimer’s drug study

j-adniJapanese health officials are reportedly investigating whether researchers fabricated data in a 2.8 billion yen ($21.12 million) Alzheimer’s drug trial.

According to Japan Today:

Health officials said they were questioning researchers after being told false data was used in clinical testing for the 2.8 billion yen government-backed Alzheimer’s study, aimed at improving diagnosis of the disease. Continue reading Japan officials allege data cooking in Alzheimer’s drug study