Category: weekend reads

If Retraction Watch were the child of Jewish parents – which happens to be the case – it would be celebrating its bar mitzvah this year. Yes, that’s right, mazel tovs are in order: Retraction Watch turns 13 today. 

And as the blog becomes some version of an adult, we have plenty to celebrate. This week, we published an op-ed in Scientific American. And here are highlights of the past 12 months:

• A new $250,000 grant from the WoodNext Foundation that allowed us to hire another editor, Fred Joelving, who is already breaking stories right and left.
• The additional bandwidth got us back to partnering with other outlets. Since January, we’ve published investigations and other stories with Undark, Science, STAT, and the Flatwater Free Press (with pickup by Nebraska Public Media).
• A study published in Research Policy “found that reporting retractions on RW significantly reduced post-retraction citations of non-swiftly retracted articles in biomedical sciences.” In other words, when Retraction Watch covers a retraction, the retracted paper is less likely to be cited.
• The Retraction Watch Database surpassed 40,000 retractions, which is three times as many as PubMed and multiples of other sources, and powers scholarship as well as retraction alerts in Edifix, EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. Clarivate has begun using it to vet its Highly Cited Researchers list. The Economist used data from the Retraction Watch Database to illustrate the amount of fraud in the biomedical literature.  
• We published an invited editorial in Anesthesiology, “How to Stop the Unknowing Citation of Retracted Papers.”

Continue reading Happy 13th birthday, Retraction Watch: Another eventful year

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

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Science rescinds expression of concern issued last month
• Exclusive: Public health journal says it will retract vaping paper for questions authors say were addressed in peer review
• Exclusive: City of Hope cancer researcher goes to court to fight misconduct finding
• Meet the author who has published more than 500 letters to the editor in a year

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to nearly 350. There are now 41,000 retractions in our database — which powers retraction alerts in Edifix, EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains 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?

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 black market for papers; the secret life of retractions; a ‘troublesome pattern’

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

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Journal to retract papers that cost its impact factor and spot in leading index
• Econ study retracted after researchers find ‘undocumented alterations in the code’
• Journal asks scientist to step down from editorial board after sleuth’s comments linked him to paper mill
• Journal editors resign, strike in dispute with Wiley over ‘business model that maximises profit’
• Florida university fires criminology professor blemished by retractions
• Sage retracting three dozen articles for ‘compromised’ peer review

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to more than 300. There are now 41,000 retractions in our database — which powers retraction alerts in Edifix, EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains 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?

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: Stanford president to resign; untrustworthy clinical trials; ‘cruel and fake’ animal experiments

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

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• ‘Shocked and flabbergasted’: Journal updates duplicate article it had said was “sufficiently” different from original
• Editorial board member dropped from journal site after Retraction Watch-Undark report links him to paper mill
• The new retraction record holder is a German anesthesiologist, with 184
• University cuts anesthesiology researcher’s funding amid four retractions
• University finds former lecturer with two retractions plagiarized in seven publications

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to more than 300. There are now 41,000 retractions in our database — which powers retraction alerts in Edifix, EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains 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?

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: 17 retractions from a closed clinic; J&J sues researchers; Retraction Watch in Le Monde

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

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Former UPenn prof faked more than 50 figures, says government watchdog
• Scientist sues publisher to block expression of concern
• Editors of public health journal resign over differences with publisher
• Publisher blacklists authors after preprint cites made-up studies.

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to more than 300. There are now 41,000 retractions in our database — which powers retraction alerts in EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains 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?

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: NIH defunds Colombian monkey facility; Carlo Croce loses another court battle; ‘peer review is porous’

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

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Editor won’t investigate data concerns about paper linking anti-prostitution laws to increased rape
• Fired OSU postdoc charged with forgery admitted to faking data, feds say
• Exclusive: Researcher has “ceased employment” at university amid investigation and retraction 
• “Truly devastating”: Four journals won’t get new Impact Factors this year because of citation shenanigans
• How can universities and journals better work together on research misconduct?
• Science paper marked with expression of concern after readers pointed out data issue
• BMJ journal retracts e-cigarette paper after authors disclose tobacco industry funding late in the process

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to more than 300. There are now 41,000 retractions in our database — which powers retraction alerts in EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains 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?

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: A professor who plagiarized his students; how many postgrads in China think it’s OK to fake data; fighting fraud

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

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Plagiarism scandal engulfs high-profile academic in Latvia
• Journalism with impact: The work of Retraction Watch
• Financial advisor failed to disclose he had sued the organization his paper criticized
• In a Tipster’s Note, a View of Science Publishing’s Achilles Heel
• ‘Deplorable’: Imaging journal to retract nearly 80 papers for compromised peer review
• Paper retracted more than eight months after author admitted to plagiarism

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to more than 300. There are now 41,000 retractions in our database — which powers retraction alerts in EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains 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?

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: A fraudster is sentenced to prison; how another reinvented himself; RFK Jr.’s retraction, redux

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

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Data sleuth flags 30 randomized clinical trials from researcher in Egypt
• Judge orders cancer researcher’s art collection seized to pay fees from failed libel suit
• Highly cited Lancet long COVID study retracted and republished
• Plague of anomalies in conference proceedings hint at ‘systemic issues’

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to more than 300. There are now 40,000 retractions in our database — which powers retraction alerts in EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains 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?

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: A weird scandal gets weirder; rapid onset gender dysphoria paper retracted; the effects of retractions on careers and collaborations

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

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• How a now-retracted study got published in the first place, leading to a $3.8 million NIH grant
• Did a ‘nasty’ publishing scheme help an Indian dental school win high rankings?
• “Flagrant and frankly, inexcusable” data duplication leads to retraction
• Journal pulls paper from Ethiopia for unlicensed use of questionnaire

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to more than 300. There are now 40,000 retractions in our database — which powers retraction alerts in EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains 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?

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: How a rejected study led to a $3.8 million grant; a ‘nasty’ publishing scheme; the ‘darker side of science’

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

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

• Exclusive: Alleged research misconduct cost Turkish surgeons tenure
• Scientist with six retractions wins challenge of firing, funding ban
• In the Death of an Iranian Scientist, Hints of Unchecked Strife

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to more than 300. There are now 40,000 retractions in our database — which powers retraction alerts in EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains 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?

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: How university rankings lead to bad science; how to report research misconduct; the impact of Retraction Watch reporting