Category: weekend reads

Before we present this week’s Weekend Reads, a question: Do you enjoy our weekly roundup? If so, we could really use your help. Would you consider a tax-deductible donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance.

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Two retractions of an Oxford lab’s papers from a major heart journal
• An excerpt from Brian Deer’s new book about Andrew Wakefield
• The retraction of a bizarre paper about a black hole in the center of the Earth
• A court battle for a duo with a history of legal threats against researchers who use a tool one of them developed

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 33.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Continue reading Weekend reads: ‘Unicorn poo’ and other fraudulent COVID-19 treatments; disgraced researchers and drug company payouts; a fictional account of real fraud

Before we present this week’s Weekend Reads, a question: Do you enjoy our weekly roundup? If so, we could really use your help. Would you consider a tax-deductible donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance.

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• An exclusive about a case of misconduct at the University of Arizona
• The retraction of a paper on HPV vaccines and preterm birth
• A group of stem cell researchers up to nine retractions
• A retracted retraction, and an apology from the publisher

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 33.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Continue reading Weekend reads: Steak-umm in the scientific literature; hushed-up COVID-19 data; major award cancelled for 2020

Before we present this week’s Weekend Reads, a question: Do you enjoy our weekly roundup? If so, we could really use your help. Would you consider a tax-deductible donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance.

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• The retraction of 23 papers, and block of 35 more, for a fake alias and plagiarism
• A Springer Nature journal that took eight months to retract a paper after a government misconduct finding
• The retraction of a paper claiming women with endometriosis were more attractive

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 33.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Continue reading Weekend reads: Retracting racist and sexist work; The Lancet learns from a retraction; Trump administration interferes with publications

Before we present this week’s Weekend Reads, a question: Do you enjoy our weekly roundup? If so, we could really use your help. Would you consider a tax-deductible donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance.

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• An Elsevier book chapter that claims COVID-19 came from space;
• An Elsevier journal that shares concerns about a ‘transparently ridiculous’ genetics paper
• A paper retracted because the references didn’t say what the authors said they did — and because the authors couldn’t come up with the underlying data
• An investigation by Arizona State into two of its former neuroscience researchers

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 32.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Continue reading Weekend reads: Questions about Russian COVID-19 vaccine data; a p-value pledge; why one author removed her name from a paper

Before we present this week’s Weekend Reads, a question: Do you enjoy our weekly roundup? If so, we could really use your help. Would you consider a tax-deductible donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance.

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• A poultry researcher who’s up to 14 retractions
• A swift expression of concern in Science
• A researcher who objected to being left off a list of bogus co-authors
• An update on a professor’s legal threats against us

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 32.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Continue reading Weekend reads: A pay-for-peer review movement; toxic PIs; why plagiarism is not a victimless crime

Before we present this week’s Weekend Reads, a question: Do you enjoy our weekly roundup? If so, we could really use your help. Would you consider a tax-deductible donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance.

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Why you shouldn’t try to republish a paper you had retracted for plagiarism
• A Duke engineering professor who had seven papers corrected for failure to disclose a significant conflict of interest
• Continuing investigation into a paper claiming to link obesity and dishonesty
• A retraction and corrections for a high-profile education researcher

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 32.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Continue reading Weekend reads: A plagiarizing priest; a journal of trial and error; disappearing journals

Before we present this week’s Weekend Reads, a question: Do you enjoy our weekly roundup? If so, we could really use your help. Would you consider a tax-deductible donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance.

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• A sting involving hydroxychloroquine, push scooters, and COVID-19
• A home for complaints about retractions of homeopathy papers
• A spider researcher using legal threats and public records requests to prevent retractions of his work

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 32.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Continue reading Weekend reads: Editors who publish in their own journals; a crackdown on paper mills; oncologist violates university policies in developing treatment

Before we present this week’s Weekend Reads, a question: Do you enjoy our weekly roundup? If so, we could really use your help. Would you consider a tax-deductible donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance.

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• A whistleblower’s allegations about hundreds of dodgy papers from four groups
• The retraction of 20 book reviews by a PhD student for plagiarism
• The retraction of a highly cited Science paper
• A professor’s departure after retractions for data anomalies
• A ban on federal US funding for a researcher who has received more than $17 million in grants

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 31.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Continue reading Weekend reads: The fate of fraudsters; TV doctors sting a predatory journal; best paper title ever?

Before we present this week’s Weekend Reads, a question: Do you enjoy our weekly roundup? If so, we could really use your help. Would you consider a tax-deductible donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance.

We turned 10 years old on Monday. Here’s a brief history, and 10 takeaways from 10 years.

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Legal threats and an alleged poisoning complicate a trial of a tea to treat malaria
• A journal editor breaking protocol to thank an anonymous whistleblower
• Scrutiny of dozens of papers about China’s ethnic minorities, for ethical violations
• A retraction and a retraction request as Twitter users call out sexism, fat-shaming, and racism

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 30.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Continue reading Weekend reads: Unprofessional behavior in peer reviews; what to do when you’re wrong; an update on the ‘Space Dentist’

Before we present this week’s Weekend Reads, a question: Do you enjoy our weekly roundup? If so, we could really use your help. Would you consider a tax-deductible donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance.

We turn 10 years old on Monday. Can you help us celebrate?

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• The planned retraction of a paper about homeopathy for COVID-19
• The retraction of a paper linking 5G technology to COVID-19
• Clarivate reversing its decision not to give two journals an Impact Factor this year
• The retraction of 46 papers at once for faked peer review
• The retraction of a paper called “overtly racist”

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 30.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Continue reading Weekend reads: ‘Self-promotion journals;’ co-authorship for money, flattening the COVID-19 publication curve