Extensive correction adds to five flagged papers for UPenn professor

A UPenn professor now has six papers with a correction, expression of concern, or retraction in two PLOS journals after one published an extensive correction to a 2018 paper.  The correction adds to two retractions and three expressions of concern for papers in PLOS Pathogens and PLOS ONE with Erle Robertson, a microbiology professor and … Continue reading Extensive correction adds to five flagged papers for UPenn professor

Medical school dean up to five retractions

A kidney research group led by a medical school dean has accumulated five retractions.  All five came within the last year, after commenters on PubPeer pointed out image similarities.  Joseph I. Shapiro, vice president and dean of the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, is an author on … Continue reading Medical school dean up to five retractions

The “internet may be a challenging venue”: Biomedical engineering group up to four retractions

A group of biomedical engineering researchers has lost four papers because they appear to be recycling their images from other papers.  The retractions for the group, from Banaras Hindu University in India, span papers published between 2011 and 2014. The retractions began in 2020, after anonymous PubPeer commenters pointed out the similarities between images. The … Continue reading The “internet may be a challenging venue”: Biomedical engineering group up to four retractions

Weekend reads: Should ‘peer reviewers be paid?’; Kim Kardashian and conflicts of interest; scandal costs millions in grants

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: COVID-19-vitamin D paper retracted by Springer Nature journal Study on reducing parents’ anxiety about children’s circumcision retracted More than 300 at once: Publisher retracts entire conference proceedings What we’ve learned from public records requests. … Continue reading Weekend reads: Should ‘peer reviewers be paid?’; Kim Kardashian and conflicts of interest; scandal costs millions in grants

What we’ve learned from public records requests. Please help us file more.

Dear Retraction Watch reader: You may have noticed an increasing number of posts over the past few years that contain the phrase “obtained through a public records request.” Some examples: It’s how we learned that a pharmacology researcher was demoted after a misconduct investigation – and then became chair at another school. That story led … Continue reading What we’ve learned from public records requests. Please help us file more.

Cancer researcher faked data for 24 images in work funded by nine NIH grants: Federal watchdog

A cancer researcher faked data in a grant application, her PhD thesis, and seven published papers, according to the U.S. Office of Research Integrity. Toni Brand, who earned her PhD from the University of Wisconsin and served as a postdoc at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), “engaged in research misconduct by knowingly or … Continue reading Cancer researcher faked data for 24 images in work funded by nine NIH grants: Federal watchdog

Five studies linked to Cassava Sciences retracted

A researcher at the center of questions about a biotech’s controversial experimental treatment for Alzheimer’s disease has lost five papers in PLOS One.  The journal says it is retracting the articles, by Hoau-Yan Wang and colleagues, over concerns about the integrity of the data and the images in the papers. Wang does not agree with … Continue reading Five studies linked to Cassava Sciences retracted

Weekend reads: False data in Columbia rankings?; data service accused of intimidating researchers; preprint server removes ‘inflammatory’ papers

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: Study of cryotherapy for COVID-19 anosmia fails the sniff test Psych journal in revolt as it publishes paper saying masturbation and gay sex are harmful Award-winning Berkeley postdoc faked data, says federal watchdog Murder … Continue reading Weekend reads: False data in Columbia rankings?; data service accused of intimidating researchers; preprint server removes ‘inflammatory’ papers

Courage and correction: how editors handle – and mishandle – errors in their journals

Last year, our group noticed an improper analysis of a purported cluster randomized trial (cRCT) in eClinicalMedicine, a Lancet journal, and requested deidentified raw data from the authors to conduct a proper analysis for the study design.  Things were off to a good start. The authors shared their data immediately – which is commendable and, … Continue reading Courage and correction: how editors handle – and mishandle – errors in their journals

Journal mulls expression of concern for Cassava Sciences paper

A journal is considering issuing an expression of concern for a 2005 paper by authors tied to a company that’s now under investigation for fraud, Retraction Watch has learned.  [See an update on this post (bottom).] The article, “Ultra-low-dose naloxone suppresses opioid tolerance, dependence and associated changes in mu opioid receptor–G protein coupling and Gβγ … Continue reading Journal mulls expression of concern for Cassava Sciences paper