The week at Retraction Watch featured the appeal of a modern-day retraction, and a look at whether a retraction by a Nobel Prize winner should be retracted 50 years later. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:
Clinical studies that eventually get retracted are originally published with significantly more errors than non-retracted trials from the same journal, according to a new study in BMJ. The authors actually called the errors “discrepancies” — for example, mathematical mistakes such as incorrect percentages of patients in a subgroup, contradictory results, or statistical errors. The study doesn’t predict … Continue reading Can you spot the signs of retraction? Just count the errors, says a new study
Two weeks after Nature Communications published a paper on asymmetric cell division in July, it posted a retraction notice saying the paper was submitted “without the knowledge or consent” of all but the corresponding author. The following day the journal “amended” the retraction note to include the initials of the corresponding author, Aicha Metchat, then based … Continue reading Author appeals retraction after co-authors dispute Nature Comm paper
This week at Retraction Watch featured an ironic case of what doesn’t make a journal great, and the retraction of a paper from JAMA. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:
A top official and law researcher at a university in India is facing dismissal after being charged with plagiarizing approximately three-quarters of one of her papers, among other allegations. Chandra Krishnamurthy, the Vice Chancellor at Pondicherry University, has been “placed under ‘compulsory wait’ by the Union human resource ministry following several charges against her,” according to … Continue reading Top official at Indian university plagiarized most of paper
Earlier this year, Food and Nutrition Sciences retracted two papers from an author who criticized highly popular fish oil supplements after an additional round of peer review concluded his papers present a “biased interpretation,” among other issues. Last year, Brian Peskin lost a paper for an “undeclared competing interest” — namely, that he held patents and directed a … Continue reading Anti-fish oil researcher netted two more retractions
Researchers and advocates are calling for the retraction of a 2015 letter in the New England Journal of Medicine that suggested that e-cigarettes are as harmful – if not more than – traditional cigarettes. The NEJM paper reported that e-cigarettes expose smokers to significant amounts of formaldehyde, which the authors calculated could raise lifetime cancer … Continue reading Researchers call for retraction of NEJM paper showing dangers of e-cigarettes
The Journal of Mosquito Research has retracted a paper because it contains a figure that “was obviously stolen” from another paper. The retracted paper’s first author Emtithal M. Abd El-Samiee is now up to two retractions, by our count. Last month, we reported on her fruit fly paper, felled by a faulty gene sequence. On the paper, she is listed as … Continue reading “Obviously stolen” figure squashes mosquito paper in author’s second retraction
A UK academic who’s lived in Thailand for decades has just been released from the Bangkok airport where he had been held for four days, the apparent result of his years-ago decision to expose a Thai official who had plagiarized his PhD thesis. A university investigation several years ago eventually found that Wyn Ellis was, indeed, correct: … Continue reading Whistleblower released after being held for 4 days in Bangkok airport
The Indian Journal of Dermatology has retracted a paper on the potential genetic markers of psoriasis that had already been retracted once for redundant publication. The journal is chalking it up to an “administrative error” that caused it to publish a paper that had already appeared in two other outlets. According to one of the … Continue reading Skin study retracted twice in triple publication rub