There’s a retraction in the issue of Neurology published this week. In a nutshell, a group of researchers had reported earlier this year that they had identified a genetic mutation potentially responsible for a rare neurological disorder called the filamin myopathy. But when another group tried to replicate those results, they found that the original … Continue reading A retraction in Neurology highlights an unusual practice
Although some readers evidently have yawned at revelations that Vahdettin Bayazit, of Alparslan University in Turkey (and, we are tempted to assume, at least a few of his co-authors) appears to have plagiarized wantonly in numerous published articles, one follower of Retraction Watch was on to this case even before we were. In an e-mail, … Continue reading Sultans of swap: List of plagiarized papers grows to include BMJ
The Bosnian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences has retracted a paper it published in August by Turkish researchers on the potential cancer risks associated with exposure to electromagnetic fields, or EMFs. The reason: Other people wrote nearly all of it. According to an editor’s notice:
Self-plagiarism alert: A very similar version of this post is being published online in Anesthesiology News, where one of us (AM) is managing editor. If a plagiarist plagiarizes from an author who herself has plagiarized, do we call it a wash and go for a beer? That scenario is precisely what Steven L. Shafer found … Continue reading Plagiarists plagiarized: A daisy chain of retractions at Anesthesia & Analgesia
Paging Dr. Murphy. In July, the editors of Cancer Biology & Therapy published a retraction remarkable for its scope. Apparently, nearly everything dishonest authors can do to doctor a manuscript, these authors did. The paper, “Overexpression of transketolase protein TKTL1 is associated with occurrence and progression in nasopharyngeal carcinoma,” initially appeared on the journal’s website … Continue reading Best of Retractions Part III: Whatever can go wrong …
The title of this post is a question that we’ve been asking ourselves since we started Retraction Watch in August, and that others have asked us since. And we’ve gotten different answers depending where we look: In our first post, we cited a study that found 328 retractions in Medline in the decade from 1995 … Continue reading So how many retractions are there every year, anyway?
Self-plagiarism alert: A very similar version of this post is being published online in Anesthesiology News, where one of us (AM) is managing editor. A leading German anesthesiologist with more than 200 papers to his name has been accused of misrepresenting critical aspects of a paper — possibly including the data itself — published late … Continue reading Top German anesthesiologist’s cardiac surgery paper retracted over “very serious misrepresentations”
Most retractions happen in the dark: An article appears in print. One day it is withdrawn, with only a brief paragraph or two on the page to alert us to its fate. On rare occasions, however, the process is more transparent, and when that happens it’s like the publishing equivalent of a supernova, a chance … Continue reading Rheumatology journal retracts tai chi-arthritis paper over fraud concerns
“Because of its growing reach and influence, Retraction Watch’s investigations and revelations have helped to address the issue of ‘unhelpful retraction notices’.” In 2020, NewsGuard said we were “unsung heroes,” one of ten sites they pointed to as “models in producing content that is truthful, compelling, credible, and transparent.” “The seamier side of academia, lying, … Continue reading What people are saying about Retraction Watch
It might not be a first – although we can’t find another example — but a mental health journal has reinstated an article it retracted four years ago. The retracted retraction notice appears in the August issue of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, a BMJ title, and refers to a 2005 article describing … Continue reading Double negatives: Four years later, a journal restores retracted headache paper