We have a follow-up from François-Xavier Coudert on the trial of two French odontology researchers accused of stealing from — and abetting the theft of — the work of a graduate student. A French court has ruled that French dental researcher accused of plagiarizing the thesis of a fellow student was guilty of the charge, but … Continue reading Stiff sentence for French researcher found guilty of plagiarizing
It’s been a busy week here at Retraction Watch, with breaking news about hotly debated papers from Nature and about GMOs, but there have been interesting stories about retractions and scientific misconduct elsewhere, too. Here’s a sampling:
Hisashi Moriguchi, who retracted two papers last year because he and his colleagues could not “guarantee the accuracy of the results and conclusions,” has now had another paper withdrawn — at least temporarily. A notice on the paper, “Autologous human cardiac stem cells transplantation for the treatment of ischaemic cardiomyopathy: first study of human-induced pluripotent … Continue reading Dubious stem cell researcher Moriguchi notches temporary withdrawal, notice of redundant publication
The journal Haematologica has retracted two papers by José Román-Gómez, both of which involve image manipulation, bringing his total to four. Here’s the first notice, for a 2007 article titled “Epigenetic regulation of human cancer/testis antigen gene, HAGE, in chronic myeloid leukemia” that has been cited 20 times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge:
USA Today has yanked back a story about a diet drug’s approval by the FDA — because the FDA hasn’t actually approved the drug yet. The FDA is scheduled to announce its decision on the subject of the story — Vivus’ Qnexa — today. The decision has been closely watched. The story, headlined “New diet … Continue reading USA Today posts story on approval of diet drug too soon, takes it down
The Journal of Neurochemistry has retracted a 2008 paper, “Toll-like receptor 3 contributes to spinal glial activation and tactile allodynia after nerve injury,” it had initially corrected — and how. The correction, which appeared online in August 2010, was extensive:
The author of a controversial and now-retracted paper questioning the science of climate change has been reprimanded by his university for plagiarism. According to USA Today’s Dan Vergano, who broke the news: [Edward] Wegman was the senior author of a 2006 report to Congress that criticized climate scientists as excessively collaborative, and found fault with … Continue reading Climate science critic Wegman reprimanded by one university committee while another finds no misconduct
Lest readers of Retraction Watch had forgotten about Naoki Mori, the cancer researcher who liked his Western blots so much he decided to reuse them — and reuse them some more — he’s back. The British Journal of Haematology (BJH) has retracted two papers Mori published in that journal, and BMC Microbiology has retracted another, … Continue reading Three more withdrawals for Naoki Mori, and a hint of the mother of retractions
A controversial study of how relationships between climate change scientists may affect the field, and that has been dogged by charges of plagiarism, will be retracted, USA Today reports. The abstract of the 2008 paper in Computational Statistics and Data Analysis, by Edward Wegman and colleagues, concluded: We conjecture that certain styles of co-authorship lead … Continue reading Controversial paper critiquing climate change science set to be retracted because of plagiarism
Psychology Today has apparently yanked a blog post by London School of Economics evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa that wondered why black women were considered less attractive than other women. The post, titled “Why Are Black Women Rated Less Physically Attractive Than Other Women, But Black Men Are Rated Better Looking Than Other Men?” was posted … Continue reading Psychology Today apparently retracts Kanazawa piece on why black women are “rated less physically attractive”