Category: chemistry retractions

When two words colloid: “copied and manipulated” figures prompt retraction of nanoparticle paper

colloids and surfaces bThe journal Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces has retracted a 2011 paper by a group of researchers in India who misappropriated — and then manhandled — a pair of images from a previously published article by other scientists.

The paper, “Synthesis and characterization of chitosan and grape polyphenols stabilized palladium nanoparticles and their antibacterial activity,” was written by authors from various institutions in Tamil Nadu, and appeared online in December 2011 and in print the following April. It has been cited three times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge.

Here’s the abstract: Continue reading When two words colloid: “copied and manipulated” figures prompt retraction of nanoparticle paper

Chemistry papers retracted for “lack of objectivity:” The authors did their own peer review

synthreactSynthesis and Reactivity in Inorganic, Metal-Organic, and Nano-Metal Chemistry is retracting three articles for duplication — redundancy the authors, chemical engineers at Islamic Azad University, in Shahreza, Iran, appear to have gotten around by reviewing their own manuscripts. But, if they did say so themselves, those papers were really something!

Here’s the retraction notice for two of the papers, both of which appeared in 2012 and which were cited seven times and once, respectively, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge:
Continue reading Chemistry papers retracted for “lack of objectivity:” The authors did their own peer review

Paper retracted because images “were, in fact, electron microscopy results of totally different catalysts”

catcommA group of chemical engineers in China has retracted their article on photocatalysts after alerting the journal that images in the paper did not show what they’d reported.

The article, which appeared in Catalysis Communications earlier this year, was titled “Synthesis and characterization of novel Cu2O/PANI composite photocatalysts with enhanced photocatalytic activity and stability,” and was written by Xiufang Wang, Guangmei Chen and Jun Zhang of the School of Materials and Chemical Engineering at Anhui University of Architecture, in Hefei.

Here’s the retraction notice: Continue reading Paper retracted because images “were, in fact, electron microscopy results of totally different catalysts”

Nano Letters retracts chopstick nanorod paper questioned this week on chemistry blogs

NANO LettersA chemistry paper on nanorods that became a lightning rod for criticism on chemistry blogs this week has been retracted.

Here’s the notice for “Chopstick Nanorods: Tuning the Angle between Pairs with High Yield,” originally published in June in Nano Letters by Rajasekhar Anumolu and Leonard F. Pease of the University of Utah: Continue reading Nano Letters retracts chopstick nanorod paper questioned this week on chemistry blogs

Carbon copies? Authors retract paper from leading chemistry journal

jacsat_v135i031.inddThe authors of a 2008 Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) paper have retracted it after a structure was “mistakenly assigned.”

The article, “Highly Enantioselective Radical Addition to N-Benzoyl Hydrazones Using Chiral Ammonium Salts,” was written by Doo Ok Jang and Sang Yoon Kim, chemists at Yonsei University, in Wonju. According to the abstract (which includes this molecular schema):

Continue reading Carbon copies? Authors retract paper from leading chemistry journal

Insert data here … Did researcher instruct co-author to make up results for chemistry paper?

orgnd7_v032i014.inddThe chemistry blogs have been buzzing this week with the story of a paper in the journal Organometallics that may — or may not — contain fabricated data.

But what makes the story a bit juicier — and yes, it’s sad that fabricated data is a bit ho-hum for us — is that one of the authors of the article appears to have been caught in the act of instructing the first author to make up results.

The article, “Synthesis, Structure, and Catalytic Studies of Palladium and Platinum Bis-Sulfoxide Complexes,” appeared last month and came from a group at the Institute for Organic Chemistry at the University of Zurich. The authors were Emma E. Drinkel, Linglin Wu, Anthony Linden and Reto Dorta.

As ChemBark reported earlier this week:

Continue reading Insert data here … Did researcher instruct co-author to make up results for chemistry paper?

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

“Clear case of plagiarism” forces retraction of chemistry paper

jrnlchemscieThe Journal of Chemical Sciences,  the journal of the Indian Academy of Sciences, has retracted a 2012 paper by a group of researchers in India and South Korea who stole material (and a lot of it) from a 2009 article for their reactant.

The retraction notice (it’s a pdf) speaks quite well for itself:

Continue reading “Clear case of plagiarism” forces retraction of chemistry paper

Our bad! Researchers take colleagues’ data, lose paper

aamick_v005i012.inddA pair of chemists from China who published their colleagues’ data without knowledge or permission have lost the article to retraction. They also have another retraction on a similar topic, which we covered before.

The article, which appeared in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces in 2012,  was titled “Nanoporous PtCo Surface Alloy Architecture with Enhanced Properties for Methanol Electrooxidation.” The authors, Huajun Qiu and Feixue Zou, are listed as being with the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Shandong University, in Jinan, China.

As the retraction notice states: Continue reading Our bad! Researchers take colleagues’ data, lose paper

We know why the caged dimers sing: They’re being retracted

jacsat_v135i024.inddHere’s a good example of a retraction done the right way (we think).

The Journal of the American Chemical Society has retracted — at the behest of the principal investigator  — a 2008 article by a group of researchers whose subsequent studies undermined their confidence in the validity of their initial findings.

The article was titled “Cooperative melting in caged dimers of rigid small molecule DNA-hybrids,” and it came from the lab of SonBinh Nguyen, of Northwestern University. As the paper’s abstract stated:
Continue reading We know why the caged dimers sing: They’re being retracted