Search Results for: medical

Leukemia paper retracted for plagiarism — 18 years later

Nearly two decades after a Polish researcher plagiarized the work of a Turkish team, her theft has been exposed and the paper retracted. According to an article in Polish-language paper Gazeta Wyborcza, Jolanta Rzymowska of the Medical University of Lublin was the subject of two disciplinary hearings, the first in February 2014, following the discovery of her plagiarism … Continue reading Leukemia paper retracted for plagiarism — 18 years later

Weekend reads: Speed kills in publishing too; studying blank pages; apologies for the Rosetta Shirt

Highlights at Retraction Watch this week included a case of overly honest referencing and the story of how a medical resident flagged up a pseudoscientific study. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Paper on circulating tumor cells taken out of circulation after lab error

A group of researchers at the Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences in Guangzhou, China have retracted a paper that came out of a clinical trial on transarterial chemoembolization, a targeted kind of chemotherapy. According to the notice, one of the authors mixed up the control samples with the clinical samples, and “could not recall which samples were in the wrong … Continue reading Paper on circulating tumor cells taken out of circulation after lab error

“Know how to recognize pseudoscience:” Reader reveals how fish oil paper came to be retracted

After our post yesterday on a fishy retraction from author Brian Peskin, a reader who alerted the journal to problems got in touch to give us the lowdown. Ian Garber is in the last year of medical residency at the University of British Columbia. Here’s the story he told us via email:

Boldt’s data were fake in 1996 paper

Update, 4 p.m. EST, 10/29/14: As a commenter points out, we didn’t quite get this one right. The Boldt paper that has been retracted was not previously retracted for lack of IRB approval. Rather, it was a heretofore unretracted article, from 1996, which German investigators have determined contained faked data. We’ve made edits below using … Continue reading Boldt’s data were fake in 1996 paper

Scientist sues PubPeer commenters, subpoenas site for names

Last month, we reported that a Wayne State University cancer researcher had threatened legal action involving post-publication peer review site PubPeer, claiming that he had lost a job offer from the University of Mississippi because of comments on the site. Fazlul Sarkar — who has received $12.8 million in NIH funding and has been an investigator … Continue reading Scientist sues PubPeer commenters, subpoenas site for names

Asthma study yanked for serious ethical violations

A paper in SpringerPlus on treating asthma with antioxidants was retracted on September 25 for something of a trifecta of ethical problems. The retraction notice indicates that the patients never consented, there was no ethical review, and the university supposedly overseeing the study had no knowledge of it:

Weekend reads: Senator loses degree for plagiarism; bad colitis poetry; fraud on the big screen

The week at Retraction Watch featured papers by a fake author with a brilliant if profane name, and the unmasking of fraudster Diederik Stapel as a sock puppet. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Yet another study of widely touted cancer “cure” retracted

A third study of GcMAF, a protein being used to treat a variety of conditions from AIDS to autism to cancer, all without the blessing of health agencies, has been retracted. Here’s the notice in Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy for “Immunotherapy of metastatic colorectal cancer with vitamin D-binding protein-derived macrophage-activating factor, GcMAF:”