Category: weekend reads

Welcome to the first Weekend Reads of 2021. 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:

• Medical writer loses COVID-19-cancer paper for plagiarism
• Psychology paper retracted after creators of tool allege “serious breach of copyright”
• Psychology journal retracts two articles for being “unethical, scientifically flawed, and based on racist ideas and agenda”
• List of retracted COVID-19 papers grows past 70
• A look back at retraction news in 2020 — and ahead to 2021

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 72.

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: The backstory of a Nature retraction; an author salutes her favorite review of 2020; vaping-COVID-19 link questioned

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 year-ed tax-deductible donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance.

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Publisher retracts 14 papers by doctor who ran afoul of U.S. FDA for marketing supplements
• Nature Communications retracts much-criticized paper on mentorship
• Texas bone researcher faked data in Nature paper, says federal watchdog, as university rescinds professorships
• After legal threats from Herbalife, Elsevier journal retracts — and then removes — a paper
• ‘I thought I had messed up my experiment’: How a grad student discovered an error that might affect hundreds of papers
• ‘Misconduct on a grand and terrible scale’: Dental scientist up to 26 retractions

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 40.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Continue reading Weekend reads: $1.5 million payout after failure to disclose conflicts; systematic review retractions; entire class penalized for cheating

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:

• Legal researcher up to 23 retractions for false affiliations, plagiarism
• Unmeet the beetles: “A very disappointing story” as authors yank paper on new insect species
• The top retractions of 2020: Mostly, but not all, COVID-19
• Caught in the act’: Veterinary researcher caught fabricating gene data, resigns from university job
• Journal expresses concern — we think — about papers by Surgisphere founder
• U Maryland virus researcher up to 13 retractions
• ‘I dropped the ball’: Magic bullet falls short of target

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 40.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Continue reading Weekend reads: Prof sues journal, school after demotion following retraction; researcher fired after questioning why school rejected grant; the authors who like ‘publish or perish’

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:

• Western University materials scientist committed misconduct, according to investigation
• Public health journal “seeking further expert advice” on January paper about COVID-19 PCR testing by high-profile virologist
• Researcher at Tehran medical school loses three papers because “overlap without cross-referencing is not legitimated”
• Researcher, until last week a Miami dean, faked data in grant applications, says federal watchdog
• Authors of meta-analysis on heart disease retract it when they realize a NEJM reference had been retracted
• Elsevier looking into “very serious concerns” after student calls out journal for fleet of Star Trek articles, other issues
• The grad student who found a fatal error that may affect lots of papers

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 39.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Continue reading Weekend reads: p-hacking the US election; an apparently fake author sinks a stock; sued for using a research tool

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:

• Stem cell researchers lose two more papers, making three
• A year after a federal misconduct finding, a cancer researcher loses a paper
• Journal retracts 70-year-old article on homosexuality for “long discredited beliefs, prejudices, and practices”
• COVID-19 pneumonia paper earns expression of concern — for being similar to a pre-pandemic article
• Bad, Medicine: Journal publishes doubly-brutal retraction notice

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 39.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Continue reading Weekend reads: Google AI researcher fired after being asked to retract paper; journal accused of stonewalling on paper “used to justify human rights violations;” reflecting on a COVID-19 retraction

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:

• Johns Hopkins student newspaper deletes, then retracts, article on faculty member’s presentation about COVID-19 deaths
• Authors retract Nature paper after realizing some data were “calculated wrongly”
• Subtraction by addition: A journal expresses concern again — but this time, with feeling
• Former Harvard cancer researcher faked a dozen images, say Feds
• Stem cell researcher’s retraction count may near two dozen
• Psychologist’s paper retracted after Dutch national body affirms misconduct findings

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 39.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Continue reading Weekend reads: Robots come to scientific publishing; questions about a COVID-19 vaccine; funding by lottery

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:

• Co-authors of paper on COVID-19 and jade amulets blame ‘the online press’ and social media for misinterpretation in retraction letter
• Two and a half years after findings of misconduct, stem cell researchers up to 19 retractions
• Author initiates “a legal process” against a journal and its publisher after a retraction, expressions of concern
• Publisher infected twice with the same anti-vaccine article
• Science retracts paper co-authored by high-profile scientist and former Dutch minister
• Nature Communications looking into paper on mentorship after strong negative reaction

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 39.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Continue reading Weekend reads: Stem cell trouble?; retractions of articles on a newborn’s death; facial recognition papers draw scrutiny

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:

• Journals flag concerns in three dozen papers by nutrition researchers
• Journal drops the ball as it tries to juggle an embargo request and Elsevier’s temporary removal policy
• Author blames “multitasking dementia” for duplicated cancer paper
• Journal that published paper about a black hole at the center of Earth sinks into the void at a leading government database
• Researcher leaves post at Australian university years after papers come under scrutiny

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 38.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Continue reading Weekend reads: Hydroxychloroquine champion faces ethics charges; a serial plagiarist in philosophy; another author reaches 100 retractions

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:

• Nanoscience researcher loses four papers for image manipulation, forged authors
• Authors earn praise — but a “poorly worded” retraction notice — for flagging their errors
• Why duplicate publications matter: A retraction notice goes above and beyond
• Researchers tried to correct a figure after questions on PubPeer. Then the real trouble started.

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 38.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Continue reading Weekend reads: ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Scholarly Research Integrity;’ amulet-COVID-19 paper retracted; bad science on voter 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:

• Paper suggesting vitamin D might protect against COVID-19 earns an expression of concern
• Widely cited COVID-19-masks paper under scrutiny for inaccurate stat
• Dear journal: Here’s the information you left out of your retraction notice. You’re welcome.
• Following Retraction Watch and PubPeer posts, journal upgrades correction to a retraction
• Researchers publish the same COVID-19 paper three times
• Amulets may prevent COVID-19, says a paper in Elsevier journal. (They don’t.)
• Our bads: Publisher error leads to double retractions for psych researchers

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 37.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Continue reading Weekend reads: A peer review murder mystery for Halloween; learning from #medbikini; inside the publishing ring that linked COVID-19 and 5G