MD Anderson researcher Aggarwal loses paper in Cancer Letters

Whether it’s a one-off or a sign of things to come, Bharat Aggarwal, the MD Anderson scientist at the center of a blogospheric storm—and an institutional investigation—over the validity of his data, has had a paper withdrawn by the journal Cancer Letters.

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

University of Perugia researcher faces trial for embezzlement, fraud following 13 retractions and Expressions of Concern

Stefano Fiorucci, a gastroenterology researcher at the University of Perugia in Italy, has been indicted for fraud and embezzlement, after a university investigation found that he had manipulated images in papers that he used to win about 2 million Euros in grant funding. The case, which has so far resulted in four retractions and nine … Continue reading University of Perugia researcher faces trial for embezzlement, fraud following 13 retractions and Expressions of Concern

Resveratrol researcher Dipak Das: My lab’s work was “99% correct”

Dipak Das, the UConn red wine researcher charged by his institution with rampant misconduct that will likely lead to dozens of retractions, is evidently a 99%-er — when it comes to accuracy, that is. According to a statement purportedly from his lawyer refuting those charges, Das claims, among other things, that the output from his … Continue reading Resveratrol researcher Dipak Das: My lab’s work was “99% correct”

UConn resveratrol researcher Dipak Das fingered in sweeping misconduct case

The University of Connecticut, in what clearly seems like an attempt to get ahead of damaging news, has announced an “extensive” investigation into research misconduct involving one of its scientists, Dipak K. Das. According to a press release, the university has notified 11 journals that published Das’ work about the alleged fraud. One area of … Continue reading UConn resveratrol researcher Dipak Das fingered in sweeping misconduct case

Plagiarism kills weed paper

The January 2012 issue of Biosystems Engineering has a commendably thorough retraction notice regarding a case of plagiarism in its pages. The notice, regarding the article “Advanced techniques for Weed and crop identification for site specific Weed management,” by Karan Singh, K.N. Agrawal, and Ganesh C. Bora, of North Dakota State University, speaks for itself:

Another Hattori retraction over reused figure from cardiology pub

Another paper in Diabetologia by Yoshiyuki Hattori has been retracted for image duplication, marking the second of his articles in the journal to be pulled for that reason. The notice for the article, “A glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analogue, liraglutide, upregulates nitric oxide production and exerts anti-inflammatory action in endothelial cells,” states:

Cardiff University misconduct investigation leads to Journal of Immunology retraction

The senior author of a Journal of Immunology paper has retracted it after a university investigation found that he had inappropriately manipulated images, Retraction Watch has learned. Here’s the notice:

Duplication earns German HIV researchers a retraction, and a 3-year publishing ban

An HIV researcher in Germany has run afoul of a number of journals because he duplicated his papers in multiple outlets. The funny business by Ulrich Hengge earned him a 3-year ban on publishing in two journals, the Journal of Molecular Medicine (JMM) and Cells, Tissues and Organs (CTO). (We’ve written about publishing bans — which … Continue reading Duplication earns German HIV researchers a retraction, and a 3-year publishing ban

Corrections in PLoS One, Nature Medicine for Zhiguo Wang, and details about Montreal Heart Institute investigation

PLoS One and Nature Medicine have issued corrections for papers by Zhiguo Wang, the former Montreal Heart Institute researcher who resigned in September following an investigation into image manipulation in his lab.  In September, PLoS One told us that they were investigating the paper. Here’s the text of the correction for “Transcriptional and Post-Transcriptional Mechanisms for Oncogenic Overexpression of … Continue reading Corrections in PLoS One, Nature Medicine for Zhiguo Wang, and details about Montreal Heart Institute investigation