Category: weekend reads

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The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Paper claiming ‘extensive’ harms of COVID-19 vaccines to be retracted
• How (not) to deal with missing data: An economist’s take on a controversial study
• Exclusive: Elsevier to retract paper by economist who failed to disclose data tinkering
• Science ‘Majorana’ particle paper earns another editor’s note as expert committee finds no misconduct
• Medical society takes millions from company that sued it for defamation – and lost

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up past 400. There are more than 47,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains more than 250 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: Cash for error detection; problems with MDPI papers; retractions in abortion science

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work?

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Engineering dean’s journal serves as a supply chain for ‘bizarre’ articles
• Econ journal board quits en masse because Wiley ‘appeared to emphasize quantity over quality’
• Elsevier investigating papers after IEEE finds ‘self-plagiarism’
• Stanford prof who sued critics loses appeal against $500,000 in legal fees
• Highly cited scientist published dozens of papers after his death

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up past 400. There are more than 47,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains more than 250 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: That paper (yes, that one) is retracted; China reviewing 17,000 retractions; a Columbia surgeon and flawed data

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work?

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Indian paper mill disbands WhatsApp community following investigation
• ‘The sincerest form of flattery’: How a math professor discovered his work had been plagiarized
• Papers used by judge to justify abortion pill suspension retracted
• No data? No problem! Undisclosed tinkering in Excel behind economics paper
• Could ‘write once/read many’ discourage cheating?

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up past 400. There are more than 46,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains more than 250 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: An authorship dispute goes to court; peer review mills; falsely accused of using ChatGPT to write a paper

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work?

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Journal takes 3 years to pull papers by researcher who committed misconduct
• Journal retracts 80 papers ID’d as paper mill products following sleuth’s report, Undark-Retraction Watch investigation
• Paper about clergy sexual abuses in South Korean churches retracted over ‘citation irregularities’
• Book retraction surfaces long-standing feud between South African academics

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to nearly 400. There are more than 46,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains well over 200 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? Or 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: More allegations at Harvard; plagiarism euphemisms; citation cartels in math

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work?

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Wiley reopens plagiarism case about dead researcher’s work
• Sociology journal’s entire editorial board resigns after Springer Nature appointed new leadership
• Exclusive: Mayo, Florida profs among authors of article tied to Indian paper mill
• Exclusive: Elsevier journal COPE threatened with sanctions will retract four more articles
• Journal pulls papers following Retraction Watch investigation
• Springer Nature journal pulls nearly three dozen papers from special issues
• Journal retracts more than 50 studies from Saudi Arabia for faked authorship

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to nearly 400. There are more than 46,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains well over 200 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? Or 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: ‘Unethical studies on China minority groups;’ an editorial board signs off; the sleuth who uncovered Dana Farber paper problems

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work?

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• ‘Nonsensical content’: Springer Nature journal breaks up with a paper on a love story
• Publisher parts ways with editor of five journals who published his own studies on Islamic practices
• A publisher makes an error in a publication about errors
• The Singapore Sting: Why an activist published a fake paper on ‘LGBTQ+ child acceptance’
• Exclusive: Paper-mill articles buoyed Spanish dean’s research output
• Gift authorship common in psychology, survey suggests

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to nearly 400. There are more than 46,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains well over 200 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? Or 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: Paper mills bribe editors; Dana-Farber researchers to retract paper; ‘The Next Battle in Higher Ed’

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work?

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Neri Oxman accused of lifting from article whose plagiarism led to downfall of concussion expert
• Exclusive: COPE threatens Elsevier journal with sanctions for ‘clear breakdown’ before seven retractions
• Studies claiming Islamic practices protect against disease and sexual harassment retracted
• Journals retract six Didier Raoult papers for ethics violations
• MDPI journal still publishing ‘cruel and unnecessary’ research despite extra checks, campaigners say

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to over 375. There are more than 46,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains well over 200 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? Or 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: The future of a federal US watchdog; a publisher plans massive layoffs; the plagiarism arms race

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work?

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Exclusive: MDPI journal undergoing reevaluation at Scopus, indexing on hold
• ‘We should have followed up’: Lancet journal retracts article on hearing aids and dementia after prodding
• Elsevier’s Scopus to continue indexing MDPI’s Sustainability after reevaluation

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to over 375. There are nearly 46,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains well over 200 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? Or 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: Claudine Gay and what comes after; China cracking down again; ‘retracted papers and collateral damage’

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work?

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Publisher error claims joke paper, April Fools’ tradition – three years later
• A closer look at the ‘chocolate with high cocoa content’ hoax
• The top ten stories at Retraction Watch in 2023
• Elsevier’s Scopus deletes journal links following revelations of hijacked indexed journals
• The year at Retraction Watch, 2023: Whew!
• Publisher donating author fees from retracted articles to charity

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to over 375. There are more than 45,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains well over 200 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? Or 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: Misconduct by national institute director in Japan; ‘a safe space for paper mills’; authors remove COVID-19 vaccine manuscript

Did 2023 feel like a year in which you couldn’t keep up, whether that was your to-do list, the news, or email?

We know the feeling.

Earlier this month, Nature reported that journals retracted more than 10,000 papers this year – so many, in fact, that we have not been able to enter them all into The Retraction Watch Database yet, because each one has to be reviewed by hand. It’s not unusual for us to have to keep working into the following year to catch up, but the volume this year will mean that will all take longer.

The value of that database – 45,000 retractions strong and counting – was the basis for our biggest development this year: Its acquisition by Crossref, in a deal that makes the data fully available for free, and provides us sustainable funding for the database side of our operations. We’re still pinching ourselves about that agreement, and we can’t wait to see just how many scholars, software developers, and others dream up new uses for the data.

Continue reading The year at Retraction Watch, 2023: Whew!