A group of researchers in China and the United States have retracted a 2014 paper in the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology after discovering the data were fatally flawed. The article examined whether the anti-arrhythmia drug zacopride affected cardiac remodeling after heart attack, and came from Bo-We Wu, of Shanxi Medical University, in Taiyuan, and colleagues, … Continue reading “Serious and obvious mistakes” kill paper on heart attacks in rats
The Journal of Materials Chemistry B has issued a laundry list of corrections for a 2014 chemotherapy paper, which address re-use of “some text”, incorrectly stated doses, and miscalculations of the drug concentration, among other issues. The paper described a new way to deliver gemcitabine via nanoparticles, focusing the drug on the tumors. It turns out the … Continue reading Drug paper gets a fix, notching several corrections
This week at Retraction Watch featured 43 papers retracted at once for fake peer reviews. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:
The volunteer members of the Board of Directors of The Center For Scientific Integrity (CSI) are deeply knowledgeable about scientific publishing, scientific integrity, and other issues relevant to the missions of Retraction Watch and CSI. They offer CSI management and staff strategic advice, feedback on specific proposals, and guidance on our work. The management and … Continue reading Board of Directors
A paper on apoptosis in mice has been retracted by Infection and Immunity after a reader tipped them off that several figures were “not faithful representations of the original data.” When the journal, published by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), contacted the authors at Anhui Medical University in Hefei, China, they claimed they couldn’t provide the … Continue reading “Not faithful” figures kill apoptosis paper
Prominent plant researcher Mark Estelle has retracted a paper on plant hormones after follow-up studies showed the conclusions were incorrect. The hormone in question, auxin, is a major player in plant growth and development. The retracted Current Biology paper reported that a certain auxin receptor, designated AFB4, downregulates the responses of cabbage-cousin Arabidopsis thaliana to the signaling molecule. But … Continue reading Cabbage batch skids: new experiments dry up plant paper
A group of pain researchers in Austria has lost their 2014 paper in the European Journal of Anaesthesiology because one of the authors wasn’t, well, one of the authors. The article, “Intravenous nonopioid analgesic drugs in chronic low back pain patients on chronic opioid treatment: A crossover, randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study,” came from a team … Continue reading Pain paper scratched for authorship issues
This week at Retraction Watch featured retractions by a high-profile cancer researcher, and a loss in court for PubPeer. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:
We are pleased to present the first in a series of articles by John R. Thomas, Jr., a lawyer at Gentry Locke [Editor’s note, 3/26/19: He has since moved to Haley, Hafemann, Magee and Thomas] who represents whistleblowers in a variety of False Claims Act cases. He writes about how whistleblowers can do the right … Continue reading So you want to be a whistleblower? A lawyer explains the process
This week at Retraction Watch featured the retraction of yet another spoof article, and the temporary shutdown of a journal. Here’s what was happening elsewhere: