Retractions begin for chemist found to have faked data in 42 papers

A nanotube researcher in Japan has earned 13 retractions, with more to come, after an extensive investigation by the country’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) revealed widespread misconduct in his work.  AIST’s investigation found Naohiro Kameta, senior principal researcher at the Nanomaterials Research Institute located in AIST’s Ibaraki campus, fabricated and … Continue reading Retractions begin for chemist found to have faked data in 42 papers

Publisher adds temporary online notifications to articles “under investigation”

Some journal articles on the Taylor & Francis website now bear a pop-up notification stating the papers are “currently under investigation.”  The publisher began adding the notices to articles such as this one in June, according to a spokesperson, as a way to inform readers about an ongoing investigation “so that they can exercise appropriate … Continue reading Publisher adds temporary online notifications to articles “under investigation”

Nobel prize-winner tallies two more retractions, bringing total to 13

A Nobel prize-winning genetics researcher has retracted two more papers, bringing his total to 13.  Gregg Semenza, a professor of genetic medicine and director of the vascular program at Johns Hopkins’ Institute for Cell Engineering in Baltimore, shared the 2019 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for “discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to … Continue reading Nobel prize-winner tallies two more retractions, bringing total to 13

‘Stealth corrections’: when journals quietly fix papers

Last March, René Aquarius noticed some overlapping patterns in a figure about a 2016 study on the blood-brain barrier. So he took to PubPeer, an online site where scientists often discuss papers, to raise his concerns.  An author of the  study published in Neuroscience Letters responded saying they are checking the original data to figure … Continue reading ‘Stealth corrections’: when journals quietly fix papers

Penn State prof earns second retraction, faces third following university probe

A professor of biomedical engineering at the Pennsylvania State University today lost a government-funded study in Science Advances, marking her second retraction.  The researcher, Deborah Kelly, is also facing retraction of a paper in Current Opinion in Structural Biology after a review undertaken by her institution found “serious data integrity concerns” in the work, according … Continue reading Penn State prof earns second retraction, faces third following university probe

Former Harvard cancer researcher plagiarized data, federal watchdog says

A former research fellow at Harvard Medical School faked data and used images from another scientist without attribution in a published paper and two grant applications, according to findings from the U.S. Office of Research Integrity.  The researcher, Arunoday K. Bhan, was also a former staff scientist at City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, … Continue reading Former Harvard cancer researcher plagiarized data, federal watchdog says

Pakistan university’s pharmacy department chair notches two retractions

Kashif Barkat, who heads the Department of Pharmacy at the University of Lahore in Punjab, Pakistan, has had two of his studies retracted and two more corrected, all for issues related to images in the papers. Several more of his studies are flagged on PubPeer for similar reasons.  According to the retraction notice for one … Continue reading Pakistan university’s pharmacy department chair notches two retractions

Weekend reads: A plethora of misdeeds; big slowdown at several publishers; hydroxychloroquine paper retraction draws scrutiny

The week at Retraction Watch featured: Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up past 400. There are more than 50,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains more than 250 titles. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most retractions lately — … Continue reading Weekend reads: A plethora of misdeeds; big slowdown at several publishers; hydroxychloroquine paper retraction draws scrutiny

First-time scientific sleuths prompt nine retractions for neurosurgery group

Two Dutch researchers were preparing a review of preclinical animal models for hemorrhagic stroke last July when they stumbled across a disturbing pattern in the literature.  First, they found many more papers on the topic than the 50 or so they expected based on their experience: more than 600.  Also, nearly every study proposed a … Continue reading First-time scientific sleuths prompt nine retractions for neurosurgery group

Exclusive: Thousands of papers misidentify microscopes, in possible sign of misconduct

One in four papers on research involving scanning electron microscopy (SEM) misidentifies the specific instrument that was used, raising suspicions of misconduct, according to a new study.  The work, published August 27 as a preprint on the Open Science Framework , examined SEM images in more than 1 million studies published by 50 materials science … Continue reading Exclusive: Thousands of papers misidentify microscopes, in possible sign of misconduct