“The Chrysalis Effect: How Ugly Initial Results Metamorphosize Into Beautiful Articles”

jomThe headline of this post is the title of a fascinating new paper in the Journal of Management suggesting that if the road to publication is paved with good intentions, it may also be paved with bad scientific practice.

Ernest Hugh O’Boyle and colleagues tracked 142 management and applied psychology PhD theses to publication, and looked for various questionable research practices — they abbreviate those “QRPs” — such as deleting or adding data after hypothesis tests, selectively adding or deleting variables, and adding or deleting hypotheses themselves.

Their findings?

Continue reading “The Chrysalis Effect: How Ugly Initial Results Metamorphosize Into Beautiful Articles”

Oh, the irony: Paper on “Ethics and Integrity of the Publishing Process” retracted for duplication

manage org reviewIn a case whose irony is not lost on those involved, an article about publishing ethics has been retracted because one of the authors re-used material he’d written for an earlier piece. But the authors and the journal’s editors have turned the episode into a learning opportunity.

Here’s the notice for “Ethics and Integrity of the Publishing Process: Myths, Facts, and a Roadmap,” published in 2011 by Marshall Schminke and Maureen L. Ambrose: Continue reading Oh, the irony: Paper on “Ethics and Integrity of the Publishing Process” retracted for duplication

Leadership journal to retract five papers from FIU scholar

fred-walumbwa
Fred O. Walumbwa, via FIU

Retraction Watch has learned that The Leadership Quarterly, a management journal published by Elsevier, plans to retract five papers by a Florida researcher poised to “rock” the field — but probably not quite in the way a press release intended — whose findings in the articles were questioned by readers.

The scholar, Fred O. Walumbwa, had a “stellar history of excellence and achievement,” according to this August 2013 press release from Florida International University announcing his move from Arizona State: Continue reading Leadership journal to retract five papers from FIU scholar

Ulrich Lichtenthaler notches retraction 13

acad manageUlrich Lichtenthaler, the management professor who has had a dozen papers retracted, has lost another.

Here’s the notice from the Academy of Management Journal for “Absorptive Capacity, Environmental Turbulence, and the Complementarity of Organizational Learning Processes:” Continue reading Ulrich Lichtenthaler notches retraction 13

Management prof with 12 retractions loses his license to teach

Ulrich Lichtenthaler
Ulrich Lichtenthaler

Ulrich Lichtenthaler, the management professor at the University of Mannheim who has had a dozen papers retracted, has now lost his license to teach.

The WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management, where Lichtenthaler earned his PhD, announced the move Friday, saying (courtesy Google Translate): Continue reading Management prof with 12 retractions loses his license to teach

“Administrative error on the part of the author” that led to duplicated text prompts retraction

techforcchangeWhen you think of an administrative error, what comes to mind? Failure to tell an employee that the reason he didn’t receive a paycheck in July was because he was fired in June? Putting the wrong address on your business cards?

You’d probably have to go pretty far down the list before you reached something like this: “I used text from one of my previously published articles in a second paper.” And yet … Continue reading “Administrative error on the part of the author” that led to duplicated text prompts retraction

Ulrich Lichtenthaler now up to 12 retractions

industrial corp changeIndustrial and Corporate Change is the site of management professor Ulrich Lichtenthaler’s 12th retraction.

Here’s the notice for “Outward knowledge transfer: the impact of project-based organization on performance,” originally published in 2010: Continue reading Ulrich Lichtenthaler now up to 12 retractions

Duplication, aka self-plagiarism, meets management-speak

management learningWhat happens when people who study management have to write a retraction notice? This, from Management Learning, regarding a paper by Gordon Müller-Seitz of the Free University of Berlin, suggests one possibility: Continue reading Duplication, aka self-plagiarism, meets management-speak

What’s new is not new again: Ulrich Lichtenthaler retracts eighth paper

The list of Ulrich Lichtenthaler retractions has grown to eight.

Here’s the new notice, for “Externally commercializing technology assets: An examination of different process stages,” from the Journal of Business Venturing: Continue reading What’s new is not new again: Ulrich Lichtenthaler retracts eighth paper

Retraction seven arrives for Ulrich Lichtenthaler

Ulrich Lichtenthaler, the management professor at the University of Mannheim who has already retracted six papers for statistical irregularities, has another retraction for his CV.

Here’s the notice, from Organization Science: Continue reading Retraction seven arrives for Ulrich Lichtenthaler