It’s Nobel Prize week, and the work behind mRNA COVID-19 vaccines has just earned the physiology or medicine prize. But this is Retraction Watch, so that’s not what this post is about. A Nobel prize-winning researcher whose publications have come under scrutiny has retracted his 10th paper for issues with the data and images. Gregg … Continue reading Nobel Prize winner Gregg Semenza tallies tenth retraction
On Aug. 17, 2022, Nicki Tiffin received a notification that she had published a new study. The problem? She had never submitted an article to the journal in which the paper appeared. A year later, despite efforts by Tiffin and others, the journal has not responded to retraction requests, and the article remains online. Further … Continue reading One year later, bioinformatics journal with unclear leadership yet to retract plagiarized article
Two anthropology organizations co-hosting a conference this fall have removed from the program a panel presentation entitled “Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby: Why biological sex remains a necessary analytic category in anthropology.” The panel had been slated for the joint annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA), to be … Continue reading Anthropology groups cancel conference panel on why biological sex is “necessary” for research
The first book of a Yale professor of Chinese history contains a “multitude of problems,” according to a no-holds-barred review published last month. Uncertainty in the Empire of Routine: The Administrative Revolution of the Eighteenth-Century Qing State appeared last August from Harvard University Press. Its author, Maura Dykstra, is now an assistant professor of history … Continue reading Yale professor’s book ‘systematically misrepresents’ sources, review claims
The economist behind a controversial study showing attractive female students got lower grades after classes moved online during the pandemic has been acquitted of research misconduct, according to a report from his former institution. But the researcher, Adrian Mehic, did not get off without reproof: Even if the work kept to the letter of the … Continue reading Swedish beauty study that sparked ‘storm of criticism’ is cleared
The publisher Frontiers has retracted nearly 40 papers across multiple journals linked to “the unethical practice of buying or selling authorship on research papers,” according to a press release posted to a company website Monday. The release also states Frontiers is adopting new policies to prevent the sale of authorships on papers it publishes. The … Continue reading Frontiers retracts nearly 40 papers linked to ‘authorship-for-sale’
Elsevier journals are retracting eight studies after learning that one of the authors on the papers was “fictitious” – as in a similar case we reported on recently. The ostensible author, Toshiyuki Bangi, was listed as affiliated with the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. The eight studies, which … Continue reading Eight papers retracted after author found to be fictional
A former researcher at the University of Utah has filed for a temporary restraining order against the U.S. government agency that last week barred her from receiving federal funds. Ivana Frech – formerly Ivana De Domenico – “engaged in research misconduct by intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly falsifying and/or fabricating” images in three different papers whose … Continue reading Researcher sues U.S. government following debarment, misconduct finding
A study by two economists who found opening strip clubs or escort services caused sex crimes in the neighborhood to drop contains “fatal errors” and should be retracted, argues a group of past and current law enforcement officers, including three academics. “None of us are prudes or even anti-strip club,” Peter Moskos, a professor at … Continue reading Ex-cops tangle with journals over strip clubs and sex crimes
Nearly four years after a critic pointed out flaws in a paper about a controversial research tool involved in nearly 20 retractions, the owner of that instrument has lost the article after he failed to overcome the editors’ concerns about the work. The owner is Donald Morisky, of the University of California, Los Angeles, whose … Continue reading Paper that helped form basis of pricy research tool retracted