Search Results for: sting

Voinnet retracts highly cited paper, bringing his total to 7

Olivier Voinnet, a well-known plant scientist at the ETH in Zurich, has notched his 7th retraction for a highly cited paper. The 2003 paper was pulled when “additional image manipulations” came to light after The Plant Journal issued a correction earlier this year. The retraction follows an investigation into — and then retraction of — several other papers co-authored by Voinnet. The … Continue reading Voinnet retracts highly cited paper, bringing his total to 7

After lawsuit, university releases misconduct report about nutrition researcher Chandra

Memorial University in Canada has released a five-year-old report of an investigation, confirming a former nutrition professor had committed misconduct in a 2001 paper. The 53-page report — about Ranjit Kumar Chandra, a prominent and once-lauded researcher — focuses on a Nutrition paper that examined the effectiveness of vitamins patented by Chandra. The report, authored by MUN professor emeritus William Pryse-Phillips, … Continue reading After lawsuit, university releases misconduct report about nutrition researcher Chandra

Chemists pull non-reproducible paper on method to make opal films

When two chemists based in China couldn’t reproduce experiments in their paper on opal films, they retracted it. As the retraction note explains: In this article we report a method to fabricate 2D TiO2–WO3 composite inverse opal films via a mechanical co-assembly route with a template of polystyrene spheres. Upon repeating the experiments described, we found that this … Continue reading Chemists pull non-reproducible paper on method to make opal films

This Giving Tuesday, consider supporting Retraction Watch

Benevolent readers: As we’ve noted many times, since August of 2010 when we launched Retraction Watch, you’ve showed us plenty of love, for which we are ever grateful. Your encouragement, story tips, and critiques are what make the site what it is. It’s great to know that we are providing you with a valuable source of … Continue reading This Giving Tuesday, consider supporting Retraction Watch

A Retraction Watch retraction: Our 2013 advice on reporting misconduct turns out to have been wrong

Nearly three years ago, our co-founders Ivan Oransky and Adam Marcus penned a column in Lab Times suggesting ways for readers to report alleged scientific misconduct. They are now retracting that advice. In the retracted column, they suggested initially contacting the editor of the journal that published the potentially problematic work, and if the editor suggests … Continue reading A Retraction Watch retraction: Our 2013 advice on reporting misconduct turns out to have been wrong

Weekend reads: Criminal charges for plagiarism; NFL scientific interference; the authorship explosion

The week at Retraction Watch featured a move by the Journal of Biological Chemistry that we’re applauding, a retraction by a high-profile nutrition researcher, and an announcement about a new partnership to create a retraction database. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Osteoporosis paper felled by concerns with “scientific integrity”

A paper suggesting that exposure to sunlight might help prevent hip fractures in the elderly has been retracted, due to duplication and “concerns about the underlying data.” An expression of concern that appeared last July flagged the 2005 paper as containing text that matched another paper with the same first author that was published in 2011. According … Continue reading Osteoporosis paper felled by concerns with “scientific integrity”

New Retraction Watch partnership will create retraction database

As our readers know, one of the goals of our work at Retraction Watch is to create a free, comprehensive database of retractions. That effort is generously funded by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and The Laura and John Arnold Foundation. Today, we’re excited to announce that our parent organization, The Center For Scientific … Continue reading New Retraction Watch partnership will create retraction database

Improving reproducibility: What can funders do? Guest post by Dorothy Bishop

We’re pleased to present a guest post from Dorothy Bishop, a researcher who focuses on neurodevelopmental disorders at Oxford University, and is also heavily involved in efforts to improve reproducibility in science, including chairing the steering committee of a recent symposium on the topic organised by the Academy of Medical Sciences. Here, she talks about … Continue reading Improving reproducibility: What can funders do? Guest post by Dorothy Bishop

Can journals get hijacked? Apparently, yes

Did you recently log onto your favorite journal’s website and see this? (For anyone who doesn’t want to bother clicking, it’s the video from Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.”) If so, your favorite journal was hijacked. In today’s issue of Science, John Bohannon (who recently published a bogus study about the benefits of chocolate) … Continue reading Can journals get hijacked? Apparently, yes