Millennium Villages Project forced to correct Lancet paper on foreign aid as leader leaves team

A senior member of a high-profile foreign aid research team has left the project on the heels of a Lancet correction of a heavily criticized paper the team published earlier this month. Paul Pronyk, who until last week was director of monitoring and evaluation at Columbia University’s Center for Global Health and Economic Development, which … Continue reading Millennium Villages Project forced to correct Lancet paper on foreign aid as leader leaves team

Journal retracts protein paper from scientist who misused deceased mentor’s data

It seemed like a touching tribute when Jiasheng Diao dedicated his 2009 article, “Crystal Structure of Butyrate Kinase 2 from Thermotoga maritima, a Member of the ASKHA Superfamily of Phosphotransferases,” in the Journal of Bacteriology to a deceased mentor, Miriam Hasson. Before her death in January 2006, of a brain tumor, Hasson and her husband, … Continue reading Journal retracts protein paper from scientist who misused deceased mentor’s data

Fleetwood Mac, anyone? Landslides paper crumbles under weight of “significant originality issue”

As Stevie Nicks sang in Fleetwood Mac’s hit, “Landslide”: Well, I’ve been afraid of changing, cause I’ve built my life around you …. The authors of a 2010 paper in the journal Landslides might have taken those words a little too much to heart. Their manuscript, “Real-time slope water table forecasting by multi-tank model combined … Continue reading Fleetwood Mac, anyone? Landslides paper crumbles under weight of “significant originality issue”

Back in the saddle: After more than 30 retractions, Naoki Mori publishing again

Perhaps it’s appropriate given the Easter season, but we have learned that Naoki Mori, the Japanese cancer researcher who received a 10-year publishing ban from the American Society of Microbiology (ASM) for imagine manipulation, has published a new paper. Mori, who was fired and then rehired by the University of the Ryukyus over the scandal, … Continue reading Back in the saddle: After more than 30 retractions, Naoki Mori publishing again

JCO expresses concern over images from Spanish group that had aroused earlier concern

The Journal of Clinical Oncology has issued an expression of concern about a 2003 article by a group of researchers in Spain who appear to have had recurrent problems with images. The paper has been cited 56 times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge. Here’s the notice: It has been brought to our attention, … Continue reading JCO expresses concern over images from Spanish group that had aroused earlier concern

Protein structure retracted after investigation into “highly improbable features,” journal calls it fraud

In 2010, a group of crystallographers immunologists and allergy researchers at the University of Salzburg published a paper in the Journal of Immunology claiming to have derived the structure of a birch pollen allergen. That structure, however, caught the attention of Bernhard Rupp, an eminent crystallographer. In January of this year, Rupp submitted a paper … Continue reading Protein structure retracted after investigation into “highly improbable features,” journal calls it fraud

Five papers by prominent cardiologist Hiroaki Matsubara subject to Expression of Concern

The American Heart Association, which publishes a number of journals, has issued an Expression of Concern about five papers in three of their publications, following allegations of image manipulation. All of the papers include Hiroaki Matsubara, of Kyoto Prefectural University, as a co-author. The notice begins: It has come to the attention of the American … Continue reading Five papers by prominent cardiologist Hiroaki Matsubara subject to Expression of Concern

Plagiarism leads to seven retractions (and counting) in the conservation literature

An ecology researcher in the Congo has found himself at the center of a plagiarism scandal that has felled seven of his papers. As Science reports today, Serge Valentin Pangou’s work began unraveling in August 2011 after Wageningen University ecologist Patrick Jansen thought a paper he’d been asked to review for the International Journal of Biodiversity and Conservation … Continue reading Plagiarism leads to seven retractions (and counting) in the conservation literature

Inquiry at Maimonides triggers two retractions in Chest, and retraining for the researchers

The journal Chest has retracted two publications — a paper and an earlier meeting abstract — from a group of researchers at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City after learning that the investigators mischaracterized the nature of their study. In addition to losing the two publications, the authors were ordered to undergo a refresher … Continue reading Inquiry at Maimonides triggers two retractions in Chest, and retraining for the researchers

Cell runs a lengthy correction, rather than retraction, for image problems

The journal Cell has an interesting — and somewhat puzzling — correction this month that we’ll add to our “mega-correction” file. At issue is a paper, published in October, from the lab of Harvard’s Stephen Elledge, a noted genetics researcher, whose first author is a post-doc there named Michael Emanuele. According to the notice, Emanuele (singled … Continue reading Cell runs a lengthy correction, rather than retraction, for image problems