Retraction Watch

PLOS ONE issues expression of concern for study of dog food and heart problems for failure to disclose conflicts of interest, other issues

via Southern California Golden Retriever Rescue

A group of veterinary researchers at the University of California, Davis, has received an expression of concern for their May 2020 study on heart disease in dogs, for failing to adequately disclose conflicts of interest and for other aspects of the article.

The paper, “Development of plasma and whole blood taurine reference ranges and identification of dietary features associated with taurine deficiency and dilated cardiomyopathy in golden retrievers: A prospective, observational study,” appeared in PLOS ONE. The authors, from the lab of Joshua A. Stern, looked at the effects on the animals of “non-traditional” diets — those high in legumes but low in grains, which contain taurine, a key amino acid. Golden retrievers are known to be particularly vulnerable to cardiac problems associated with a lack of taurine. The FDA has been investigating the connection.

According to the authors:

‘Women’s respect is a priority for us’: Journal finally retracts paper claiming women with endometriosis are more attractive

The journal that published a paper claiming that attractive women were more likely to develop endometriosis has finally retracted the article, more than a month after the authors called for the move.

The article, “Attractiveness of women with rectovaginal endometriosis: a case-control study,” appeared in September 2012 in Fertility and Sterility, an official publication of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Over the years, it had been the subject of criticism.

In early August, the authors of the paper, from Italy, called for the retraction of the work. But that didn’t happen until now.

Per the retraction notice, which is undated — as has become common for Elsevier journals that overwrite their original HTML pages — but seems to have appeared within the last few days:

Doing the right thing: Alcoholism researchers retract six-week old paper after finding errors

Oh, those insufferably progressive Scandinavians, always doing the right thing.

A group of alcoholism researchers in Denmark has retracted a 2020 paper on gender and alcohol treatment after finding errors in their results. And they’ve set up a system to avoid similar problems in the future.

The paper, “Gender differences in alcohol treatment,” appeared in Alcohol & Alcoholism in July, with authors from the University of Southern Denmark in Odense. The paper found that:

Weekend reads: Questions about Russian COVID-19 vaccine data; a p-value pledge; why one author removed her name from a paper

Before we present this week’s Weekend Reads, a question: Do you enjoy our weekly roundup? If so, we could really use your help. Would you consider a tax-deductible donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance.

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

An Elsevier book chapter that claims COVID-19 came from space;
An Elsevier journal that shares concerns about a ‘transparently ridiculous’ genetics paper
A paper retracted because the references didn’t say what the authors said they did — and because the authors couldn’t come up with the underlying data
An investigation by Arizona State into two of its former neuroscience researchers

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 32.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Arizona State investigating data anomalies in work by two former neuroscience faculty members

Arizona State University is investigating two former faculty members suspected of falsifying data in several of their papers.

The inquiry centers on Antonella Caccamo and Salvatore Oddo, who recently lost their 2016 article in Molecular Psychiatry, a Nature journal, titled “p62 improves AD-like pathology by increasing autophagy.”

Caccamo once held a research appointment in the ASU-Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center. Oddo, also worked in the center, where he was an associate professor.

While at ASU — including Banner Health — Oddo received more than $11 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and was co-PI on grant from the National Science Foundation worth more than $220,000. Caccamo received one grant from NIH, in 2018, totaling roughly $543,000.

According to the retraction notice:

‘An isolated incident’: Should reviewers check references?

Peer reviewers are supposed to be experts in their fields, competent enough at least to spot methodological errors, wayward conclusions and implausible findings. But checking references? Apparently, not so much.

A journal about academic medicine has retracted a 2020 article because its reviewers and editors didn’t bother to confirm that the references said what the authors said they did — and because when pressed, the corresponding author couldn’t provide the underlying data for the paper.

The paper, “Medical students’ perception of their education and training to cope with future market trends,” appeared in March in Advances in Medical Education and Practice, a Dove Press title. The author was Mohamed Abdelrahman Mohamed Iesa, a physiologist at Umm Al-Qura University in Saudi Arabia.

The article presented the results of a survey of 500 medical students at 10 schools in the United Kingdom. It purported to find that:

‘Transparently ridiculous’: Elsevier says journal shares critic’s concerns about bizarre genetics paper

Elsevier says it is investigating how one of its journals managed to publish a paper with patently absurd assertions about the genetic inheritance of personality traits.

The paper, “Temperament gene inheritance,” appears this month in Meta Gene and was written by authors in Saudi Arabia and Turkey. It states:

COVID-19 arrived on a meteorite, claims Elsevier book chapter

If bats and pangolins could review scientific papers, they’d definitely have given the following article an “accept without revisions.”

An international group of researchers has proposed that COVID-19 hitched a ride to this planet from space. Same for the fungal infection Candida auris.

We’ve heard plenty of bizarre theories about the novel coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic, from its having been manufactured in a Chinese lab to its links to 5G cell technology. But this one wins the prize for being, as one Twitter user said, “batshit.”

Weekend reads: A pay-for-peer review movement; toxic PIs; why plagiarism is not a victimless crime

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

A poultry researcher who’s up to 14 retractions
A swift expression of concern in Science
A researcher who objected to being left off a list of bogus co-authors
An update on a professor’s legal threats against us

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 32.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Professor’s legal threats “were personal and not made on behalf of the University,” says University of California, Irvine

The University of California, Irvine, appears to be putting some distance between the administration and a lecturer at the school who threatened Retraction Watch with legal action after we inquired about the misbehavior of one of his colleagues.

Last month, we reported on the case of Constance Iloh, a UCI education scholar whose work has come under scrutiny for plagiarism and misuse of references. Before posting our story, we emailed Iloh multiple times for comment on two retractions and a pair of corrections.

She didn’t reply — but we did hear from Eric Lindsay, a composer at the school, who told us, using a UCI email address:

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