Search Results for: plagiarism

The “sins and virtues of authors span a rather colorful palette”: New editor yanks plagiarized paper

What a difference a new editor can make. Consider the case of a paper in Scientometrics that came to the attention earlier this year of Jeffrey Beall. Beall, a research librarian and scourge of the predatory publishing world, had previously posted on his blog about his frustrations with the journal’s seeming indifference to the word … Continue reading The “sins and virtues of authors span a rather colorful palette”: New editor yanks plagiarized paper

Near “word-to-word” similarities topple microflora paper

The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine has retracted a 2012 paper by a group of pediatric gut researchers in Naples, Italy, who seemed to have had a visceral reaction to using their own words. The paper, “Composition and roles of intestinal microbiota in children,” sought to provide an update of the advantages of new-generation … Continue reading Near “word-to-word” similarities topple microflora paper

Retractions appear in case of former Kansas water scientist rebuked for misconduct

Back in December, the University of Kansas issued a public censure of a former water researcher who, the school says, engaged in a pattern of plagiarism and other shoddy publishing practices. Marios Sophocleous, who’d held the position of senior scientist at the Kansas Geological Survey:

How common is scientific misconduct in Nigeria?

We’ve only covered one retraction from Nigeria. But as we’ve often noted, retraction rates don’t necessarily correlate with rates of problematic research, so the low number doesn’t really answer the question in this post’s title. Lucky for us, a group of authors have started publishing surveys of Nigerian scientists on the subject. In a new … Continue reading How common is scientific misconduct in Nigeria?

Oh, the irony: Paper on “Ethics and Integrity of the Publishing Process” retracted for duplication

In a case whose irony is not lost on those involved, an article about publishing ethics has been retracted because one of the authors re-used material he’d written for an earlier piece. But the authors and the journal’s editors have turned the episode into a learning opportunity. Here’s the notice for “Ethics and Integrity of … Continue reading Oh, the irony: Paper on “Ethics and Integrity of the Publishing Process” retracted for duplication