Search Results for: pubpeer

Highly cited engineer offers guaranteed publication, citations in return for coauthorship

Last year, a researcher at a U.S. university received an email offering what the subject line described as a “great opportunity to publish an article.” The author of the email, Mahdi Shariati, an adjunct professor of civil engineering at Ton Duc Thang University, in Vietnam, said he had read one of the researcher’s papers and … Continue reading Highly cited engineer offers guaranteed publication, citations in return for coauthorship

Cambridge researcher pulls Cell paper five years after Nature, Science retractions

A cancer researcher at the University of Cambridge in the UK has retracted a paper from Cell after commenters on PubPeer questioned aspects of 10 images in the article.  Though an institutional investigation found the figures were “not reliable,” another of the authors objected to the retraction as “an overreaction.” Steve Jackson, the University of … Continue reading Cambridge researcher pulls Cell paper five years after Nature, Science retractions

Springer Nature journal has retracted over 200 papers since September

Optical and Quantum Electronics, a Springer Nature journal, has retracted more than 200 papers since the start of September, and continues issuing retraction notices en masse.  According to the notices, which have similar wording, the retractions come after the publisher identified problems with the articles including compromised peer review, inappropriate or irrelevant references, and nonsensical … Continue reading Springer Nature journal has retracted over 200 papers since September

Weekend reads: ‘A lab in recovery’; ‘my paper was proved wrong’; a journal apologizes

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? The week at Retraction Watch featured: Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up past 400. There are more than 50,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains more than 250 titles. And have … Continue reading Weekend reads: ‘A lab in recovery’; ‘my paper was proved wrong’; a journal apologizes

New engineering dean has two retractions for authorship manipulation

A newly appointed dean at the University of Guelph in Canada has had two papers retracted for “evidence of authorship manipulation.”  Another article by the researcher, Moncef Nehdi, formerly of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, seems to match a paper that had its authorship advertised for sale, according to a post on PubPeer.  Nehdi told … Continue reading New engineering dean has two retractions for authorship manipulation

Publisher adds temporary online notifications to articles “under investigation”

Some journal articles on the Taylor & Francis website now bear a pop-up notification stating the papers are “currently under investigation.”  The publisher began adding the notices to articles such as this one in June, according to a spokesperson, as a way to inform readers about an ongoing investigation “so that they can exercise appropriate … Continue reading Publisher adds temporary online notifications to articles “under investigation”

Weekend reads: Harm reduction for peer review; finding reviewers; fake journals

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? The week at Retraction Watch featured: Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up past 400. There are more than 50,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains more than 250 titles. And have … Continue reading Weekend reads: Harm reduction for peer review; finding reviewers; fake journals

Nobel prize-winner tallies two more retractions, bringing total to 13

A Nobel prize-winning genetics researcher has retracted two more papers, bringing his total to 13.  Gregg Semenza, a professor of genetic medicine and director of the vascular program at Johns Hopkins’ Institute for Cell Engineering in Baltimore, shared the 2019 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for “discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to … Continue reading Nobel prize-winner tallies two more retractions, bringing total to 13

‘Stealth corrections’: when journals quietly fix papers

Last March, René Aquarius noticed some overlapping patterns in a figure about a 2016 study on the blood-brain barrier. So he took to PubPeer, an online site where scientists often discuss papers, to raise his concerns.  An author of the  study published in Neuroscience Letters responded saying they are checking the original data to figure … Continue reading ‘Stealth corrections’: when journals quietly fix papers

Penn State prof earns second retraction, faces third following university probe

A professor of biomedical engineering at the Pennsylvania State University today lost a government-funded study in Science Advances, marking her second retraction.  The researcher, Deborah Kelly, is also facing retraction of a paper in Current Opinion in Structural Biology after a review undertaken by her institution found “serious data integrity concerns” in the work, according … Continue reading Penn State prof earns second retraction, faces third following university probe