Search Results for: plagiarism

Is post-hoc statistical analysis the new fraud detection tool? A new review looks at fraudster Reuben’s work

In the beginning, there was Scott Reuben. Well, not quite. Reuben, a Massachusetts anesthesiologist who fabricated data and briefly topped our list of most-retracted authors, didn’t invent research fraud, although he did spend six months in federal prison for his crimes. But his case was in no small measure responsible for the birth of this … Continue reading Is post-hoc statistical analysis the new fraud detection tool? A new review looks at fraudster Reuben’s work

Serial plagiarizers banned from dermatology journal forever

Last August, we brought you the news that the Indian Journal of Dermatology had banned a group of Tunisian researchers from publishing in the journal for five years, because they had plagiarized in a 2009 study. Well, the journal’s editors found another case in which the authors have plagiarized, and now they’re banned from the … Continue reading Serial plagiarizers banned from dermatology journal forever

Paper claiming hottest 60-year-span in 1,000 years put on hold after being published online

The authors of a study of Australasian temperatures over the past millennium have put the print publication of an online-first study on hold after errors were identified in the records they used. Here’s how RealClimate.org summarized the findings of the original paper, which was published in mid-May: The conclusion reached is that summer temperatures in … Continue reading Paper claiming hottest 60-year-span in 1,000 years put on hold after being published online

Three more retractions for Vietnamese physicists who plagiarized a plagiarized paper

Last week, we brought you the story of Thong Duc Le and his colleagues, physicists who were forced to retract four papers, including one that cited, as we noted “their own study that had already been retracted for plagiarism.” The team has now retracted three more papers:

JACS makes it official, retracting Breslow “space dinosaurs” paper for “similarity to his previously published reviews”

Last month, we (and others) reported that the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) had temporarily withdrawn a paper by a former president of the society after a number of chemists pointed out similarities between the March 25 article and previous ones by the author, Ronald Breslow. The paper had drawn puzzled looks thanks … Continue reading JACS makes it official, retracting Breslow “space dinosaurs” paper for “similarity to his previously published reviews”

Brit psych journal retracts Stapel paper on the paradox of failure

In 2011, Diederik Stapel, a Dutch researcher who at the time was a shining star in the world of social psychology, published an article in the British Journal of Social Psychology with the counter-intuitive claim that failure can sometimes be more emotionally gratifying than success. We’re guessing this isn’t one of those times. As readers of … Continue reading Brit psych journal retracts Stapel paper on the paradox of failure

Fleetwood Mac, anyone? Landslides paper crumbles under weight of “significant originality issue”

As Stevie Nicks sang in Fleetwood Mac’s hit, “Landslide”: Well, I’ve been afraid of changing, cause I’ve built my life around you …. The authors of a 2010 paper in the journal Landslides might have taken those words a little too much to heart. Their manuscript, “Real-time slope water table forecasting by multi-tank model combined … Continue reading Fleetwood Mac, anyone? Landslides paper crumbles under weight of “significant originality issue”

He’s my editor, he’s my author, he’s my editor: A retraction reveals a tangled web

The June 2012 issue of Current Opinion in Critical Care has a retraction that might have been a rather mundane case of plagiarism but for the remarkably intertwined relationships of the authors of the publications involved. Here’s the notice, which doesn’t attempt to broach the conflicts of interest (we can hardly blame them, as you’ll see):

JACS temporarily pulls “space dinosaurs” paper for alleged duplication

Duplication has, as we noted on Twitter the other day, been tripping up more and more scientists. And now self-plagiarism has snared a prominent Columbia University chemist in a paper that left many people scratching their heads to begin with. As reported by the Chembark blog and Nature, the Journal of the American Chemical Society … Continue reading JACS temporarily pulls “space dinosaurs” paper for alleged duplication

Patient database errors lead to three rheumatology retractions

The authors of three papers in Rheumatology International about systemic sclerosis, also known as scleroderma, are retracting them after patients were misidentified in databases. According to the three notices: This article has been retracted at the request of the authors. The authors made a serious statistical error which unfortunately invalidates their results. Corresponding author Metin … Continue reading Patient database errors lead to three rheumatology retractions