CrossFit can sue over error in paper it claims cost the brand millions

A California court ruled that fitness empire CrossFit can proceed to trial with its lawsuit against a competitor, alleging it published falsified data that hurt the company’s reputation, according to recently released court documents. The case pits the popular for-profit CrossFit brand against the non-profit National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), which published the 2013 … Continue reading CrossFit can sue over error in paper it claims cost the brand millions

Cancer biologist says Nature journal “censored” his News & Views, retracts it

A cancer biologist has retracted a 2016 News & Views article in a Nature journal, alleging that the journal tried to censor his writing by asking him to remove passages that criticized another journal (Cell).  Carlo Croce, the sole author of the article in Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology from Ohio State University in Columbus, described the … Continue reading Cancer biologist says Nature journal “censored” his News & Views, retracts it

Amid controversial Sarepta approval decision, FDA head calls for key study retraction

The head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has called for the retraction of a study about a drug that the agency itself approved earlier this week, despite senior staff opposing the approval. On September 19, the FDA okayed eteplirsen to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a rare genetic disorder that results in muscle degeneration and … Continue reading Amid controversial Sarepta approval decision, FDA head calls for key study retraction

When does “overlap” become plagiarism? Here’s what PLOS ONE decided

Consider this: Fragments of a PLOS ONE paper overlap with pieces of other publications. The authors used them without credit and without quotation marks. This sounds an awful lot like plagiarism — using PLOS‘s own standards, even. But the journal isn’t calling it plagiarism. They’ve labeled this an instance of “text overlap,” a spokesperson told us, based … Continue reading When does “overlap” become plagiarism? Here’s what PLOS ONE decided

Author lifts from one paper in two different articles. Why does one journal retract, while the other corrects?

Are there instances when similarities between papers should be fixed by a correction, rather than a retraction? We’re asking ourselves that question after seeing two journals take very different approaches to a somewhat similar situation. Last year, Frontiers in Physiology retracted a paper by Anastasios Lymperopoulos at Nova Southeastern University in Florida because of an “an … Continue reading Author lifts from one paper in two different articles. Why does one journal retract, while the other corrects?

Judges toss lawsuits by CrossFit gym claiming fraud in $273 million in grants

Federal judges in Ohio have dismissed two lawsuits claiming that university researchers used false results to secure more than $250 million in federal grants. Both lawsuits, which objected to a study examining the effects of CrossFit-based training, were filed by Mitchell Potterf, the owner of a gym affiliated with CrossFit in Columbus, Ohio. Potterf took issue … Continue reading Judges toss lawsuits by CrossFit gym claiming fraud in $273 million in grants

Leiden requests two retractions over misconduct

The Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) has asked a journal to retract two papers after revealing a former employee manipulated data. The report does not name the individual nor the journal, but notes that they work in a molecular field, and are currently employed by a university outside The Netherlands. According to a news release about … Continue reading Leiden requests two retractions over misconduct

Hands are the “proper design by the Creator,” PLOS ONE paper suggests

A paper about the biomechanics of human hands published last month in PLOS ONE is raising some questions on Twitter, after readers stumbled upon some curious language in the abstract: The explicit functional link indicates that the biomechanical characteristic of tendinous connective architecture between muscles and articulations is the proper design by the Creator to … Continue reading Hands are the “proper design by the Creator,” PLOS ONE paper suggests

Journal corrects CrossFit injury data in paper at center of lawsuit

A study on the trendy and grueling workout regimen known as CrossFit has a correction concerning the number of participants hurt during 10 weeks of training. The paper has been the center of multiple lawsuits  — one by CrossFit, and one by a CrossFit gym owner — for allegedly over-inflating the risks associated with the regimen. The original paper claimed that 9 … Continue reading Journal corrects CrossFit injury data in paper at center of lawsuit

Expression of concern opens floodgates of controversy over lead in water supply

An expression of concern has been published on a paper that taps into a decades-long fight over how to remove lead from the water supply. The paper in question, published in the Journal American Water Works Association, supports the safety of a common but frequently criticized way of incrementally removing lead pipes. The expression of concern came after years of … Continue reading Expression of concern opens floodgates of controversy over lead in water supply