Category: weekend reads

Dear RW readers, can you spare $25?

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Former Australian science agency ecology researcher loses two papers
• Dozens of board members resign from big-data journal after mass staff firings
• Review mill in Italy targeting ob-gyn journals, researchers allege
• Exclusive: A misconduct ruling, a flawed investigation, and an attempted payoff
• Sleuths flag ‘complete mismatch’ in data of BMJ stem cell study
• Journal retracts ‘bizarre’ placebo effect paper

Did you know that Retraction Watch and the Retraction Watch Database are  projects of The Center of Scientific Integrity?  Others include the Medical Evidence Project, the Hijacked Journal Checker, and the Sleuths in Residence Program. Help support this work.   

Here’s what was happening elsewhere (some of these items may be paywalled, metered access, or require free registration to read):

Continue reading Weekend reads: Journal retracts ADHD intervention papers; ‘Science and the crisis of trust’; letters to editors surge

Dear RW readers, can you spare $25?

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Embattled journal Cureus delisted from Web of Science, loses impact factor
• ‘A new low’: Researchers at Iraqi university must cite colleagues, school journals in papers
• Challenge accepted: A reader wrote a program to find fake references in books
• Widespread image reuse, manipulation uncovered in animal studies of brain injury
• Exclusive: Web of Science company involved in dubious awards in Iraq

Did you know that Retraction Watch and the Retraction Watch Database are  projects of The Center of Scientific Integrity?  Others include the Medical Evidence Project, the Hijacked Journal Checker, and the Sleuths in Residence Program. Help support this work.   

Here’s what was happening elsewhere (some of these items may be paywalled, metered access, or require free registration to read):

Continue reading Weekend reads: Another CDC journal in trouble; Web of Science company endorses Iraq awards; on the scarcity of peer reviewers

Dear RW readers, can you spare $25?

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Exclusive: Journal to retract Alzheimer’s study after investigation finds misconduct
• Less is more: Academic publishing needs ‘radical change,’ Cambridge press report concludes
• Exclusive: American Heart Association reviewing award to rocket scientist with seven retractions
• ‘Confusing and frankly, disturbing’: When researchers are impersonated
• Despite new retractions, suspect organ transplant papers remain in the literature 

Did you know that Retraction Watch and the Retraction Watch Database are  projects of The Center of Scientific Integrity?  Others include the Medical Evidence Project, the Hijacked Journal Checker, and the Sleuths in Residence Program. Help support this work.   

Here’s what was happening elsewhere (some of these items may be paywalled, metered access, or require free registration to read):

Continue reading Weekend reads: NEJM launches rival to MMWR; Former NIH official gets expression of concern; ‘1 in 5 chemists’ added errors to papers: study

Dear RW readers, can you spare $25?

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• A review claimed a researcher was an expert in sex robots. He’s not
• Iraqi dean earns another retraction for paper posted for sale on Facebook
• Sleuth loses paper for duplicate publication after flagging hundreds of untrustworthy articles
• Controversial Paxil “Study 329” earns expression of concern after critic sues publisher
• Exclusive: Iraqi university forcing students to cite its journals to graduate

Did you know that Retraction Watch and the Retraction Watch Database are  projects of The Center of Scientific Integrity? Others include the Medical Evidence Project, the Hijacked Journal Checker, and the Sleuths in Residence Program. Help support this work.   

Here’s what was happening elsewhere (some of these items may be paywalled, metered access, or require free registration to read):

Continue reading Weekend reads: Spinal researcher gave patients ‘false hope’; HHS admits error in laying off top ethics official; Alzheimer’s fraud trial set to begin 

Dear RW readers, can you spare $25?

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• $1.5 million program targets changes to academic incentives
• Editors of criminology journal resign amid concern about review times
• ‘Cosmic magnet’ study retracted after cleaning agent wipes away results
• Deputy minister in Iraq losing papers with signs of paper mill involvement
• Soil scientist previously named in citation scandal appointed to editor role at Elsevier journal

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up past 500. There are more than 60,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains more than 300 titles. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most retractions lately — or our list of top 10 most highly cited retracted papers? What about The Retraction Watch Mass Resignations List?

Here’s what was happening elsewhere (some of these items may be paywalled, metered access, or require free registration to read):

Continue reading Weekend reads: PubMed during the US shutdown; EU commissioner ‘appears to cite’ discredited study; KPMG corrected ‘phantom’ reference in gov’t report

Dear RW readers, can you spare $25?

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Duke scientists lose eight papers for alleged image manipulation
• Sleuth unearths citation, authorship issues at earth sciences journal
• Former student who ran paper mill up to 11 retractions
• Journal issues speedy retraction in less than a day for ‘inadvertent mistake’
• Wiley retracts study stolen by reviewer, following Retraction Watch coverage

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up past 500. There are more than 60,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains more than 300 titles. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most retractions lately — or our list of top 10 most highly cited retracted papers? What about The Retraction Watch Mass Resignations List?

Here’s what was happening elsewhere (some of these items may be paywalled, metered access, or require free registration to read):

Continue reading Weekend reads: Science publishing a ‘hot mess’; AI microscopy ‘indistinguishable’ from real; social media as a bellwether for retractions

Dear RW readers, can you spare $25?

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• University email addresses no longer effective bulwark against fake peer review
• Study on apple cider vinegar for weight loss retracted after many raise concerns
• Second study using ‘Tin Man Syndrome’ X-ray under scrutiny following Retraction Watch inquiry
• Math has publication fraud, too
• Authors defend retracted paper on vitamin D and COVID-19 critic called ‘deeply bizarre‘
• Taylor & Francis threatens legal action against anonymous group’s ‘highly defamatory’ claims 

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up past 500. There are more than 60,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains more than 300 titles. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most retractions lately — or our list of top 10 most highly cited retracted papers? What about The Retraction Watch Mass Resignations List?

Here’s what was happening elsewhere (some of these items may be paywalled, metered access, or require free registration to read):

Continue reading Weekend reads: U.S. EPA tells scientists to stop publishing; ‘unreliable’ Tylenol research; Alzheimer’s paper retracted

Dear RW readers, can you spare $25?

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Drummond Rennie (1936-2025): A towering figure in medical journals in his own words
• Exclusive: Journal bans drug safety database papers as they flood the literature
• Why has this microRNA review paper been cited more than 2,000 times? 
• Publisher investigating DNA contamination paper that authors say CDC vaccine committee will consider
• Exclusive: Iraqi physicist fired by ministry over massive publishing scam

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up past 500. There are more than 60,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains more than 300 titles. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most retractions lately — or our list of top 10 most highly cited retracted papers? What about The Retraction Watch Mass Resignations List?

Here’s what was happening elsewhere (some of these items may be paywalled, metered access, or require free registration to read):

Continue reading Weekend reads: Vaccine contamination paper under investigation; Harvard sues Gino for falsifying evidence; fugitive scientist arrested

Dear RW readers, can you spare $25?

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• ‘Article broker’ in China trying to hook journal editors with fishy publishing deals
• Deputy department chair loses paper for image duplication, more retractions to follow
• ​​University vice chancellor’s work crawling with ‘tortured phrases’
• When you discover you’re an author on a paper you’ve never seen

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up past 500. There are more than 60,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains more than 300 titles. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most retractions lately — or our list of top 10 most highly cited retracted papers? What about The Retraction Watch Mass Resignations List?

Here’s what was happening elsewhere (some of these items may be paywalled, metered access, or require free registration to read):

Continue reading Weekend reads: Stopping citation hallucinations; the ‘uncanny valley’ of predatory journals; fighting back against misconduct

Dear RW readers, can you spare $25?

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Papers continue to face retractions for failure to license pricy tool
• ‘Tin Man Syndrome,’ five other case studies retracted following Retraction Watch coverage
• Guest post: In the name of Scopus, one hijacked journal easily tricks authors
• New COPE retraction guidelines address paper mills, third parties, and more
• Iraqi university dean linked to paper mills has more than a dozen retractions

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up past 500. There are more than 60,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains more than 300 titles. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most retractions lately — or our list of top 10 most highly cited retracted papers? What about The Retraction Watch Mass Resignations List?

Here’s what was happening elsewhere (some of these items may be paywalled, metered access, or require free registration to read):

Continue reading Weekend reads: ‘Europe’s largest paper mill?’; the ‘Paper Mill Iceberg’ of cancer research; why is Trump gutting research integrity agencies?