Editor’s note: This post responds to a Feb. 13 article in The Atlantic, “The Scientific Literature Can’t Save Us Now,” written by Retraction Watch cofounders Adam Marcus and Ivan Oransky. The contentious issue of what — and more importantly who — to believe, when it comes to medical science, is at a critical moment. Watchdog … Continue reading Guest post: If you’re going to critique science, be scientific about it
The authors of a paper on how incentives influence IQ have requested an expression of concern after a recent retraction altered the results of their study. On January 20, we reported that a paper by embattled researcher and child psychologist Stephen Breuning was retracted decades after an investigation found evidence of scientific misconduct. Breuning’s papers … Continue reading IQ paper gets expression of concern as misconduct fallout continues
Nick Wise had a prolific start to his sleuthing journey. In July 2021, the fluid dynamics researcher started looking for tortured phrases in published papers, and has since had a hand in at least 1,000 retractions. He also helped identify unique phrases for the Tortured Phrases Detector, a function of the Problematic Paper Screener that … Continue reading When a sleuth gets hired by a publisher: A Q&A with Nick Wise
A 2017 paper coauthored by Nobel laureate Thomas Südhof has been retracted. The article, “Conditional Deletion of All Neurexins Defines Diversity of Essential Synaptic Organizer Functions for Neurexins,” was published in Neuron in May 2017 and has been cited 145 times, according to Clarivate’s Web of Science. The retraction notice, issued February 11, states: We, … Continue reading ICYMI: Second paper by Nobel laureate Thomas Südhof retracted
Two papers on a novel approach for flood prediction have been retracted for “substantial overlap” between the works. The authors, including Debopam Acharya, dean of the School of Computing at DIT University in Uttarakhand, India, are contesting both retractions. The articles, published in 2023, are “FLOODALERT: an internet of things based real-time flash flood tracking … Continue reading Two papers coauthored by a dean retracted, with a third in question
Dear RW readers, can you spare $25? The week at Retraction Watch featured: Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up past 500. There are more than 55,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains more than 300 titles. … Continue reading Weekend reads: Alzheimer’s researcher resigns; bad stats in biology; ethical reasoning in open science
The majority of the editorial board of a top psychology journal have resigned en masse after the publisher replaced the journal’s editors without warning. Also departing are the honorary editor and statistical consultants. The journal, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, is a Karger title and “the official journal of the International College of Psychosomatic Medicine and the … Continue reading Mass resignations hit psychotherapy journal after publisher replaced editors
An English university has issued a finding of research misconduct against a former graduate student and is requesting 10 retractions of his published work, which they say bears the marks of being papermilled. The former student, Sameer Quazi, was enrolled at the University of Manchester in 2021 in the school’s “PGCert” program in clinical bioinformatics, … Continue reading Former student was running a paper mill, says University of Manchester
In 2018, a biochemist in Scotland became aware of image irregularities in two of his papers through comments on PubPeer, each in a different journal. The researcher, Dario Alessi, a professor at the University of Dundee, said he alerted his home institution immediately. In July and October 2024, the papers were retracted. Emails obtained by … Continue reading Anatomy of a retraction: When cleaning up the literature takes six years
A psychology journal has retracted an article on IQ tests nearly 50 years after publication — and more than 35 years after an investigation found the lead author had fabricated data in several other studies. Stephen Breuning, a former assistant professor of child psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, gained notoriety after a 1987 National … Continue reading More than three decades after misconduct ruling, researcher’s IQ test paper is retracted