Search Results for: medical

“Protracted and unresolved authors dispute” and “striking similarities” lead to two retractions

It’s been a busy month for retractions at the Pan African Medical Journal (PAMJ) — dedicated to “Better health through knowledge sharing and information dissemination.” The journal has retracted a 2013 article by a group from Bangalore, India, for plagiarism. And unlike the authors, the editors didn’t mince words. The paper, “Detection of ESBL among … Continue reading “Protracted and unresolved authors dispute” and “striking similarities” lead to two retractions

Weekend reads: MIT professor accused of fraud, biologist who retracted paper suspended, and more

Another busy week at Retraction Watch, featuring lots of snow at HQ and a trip to take part in a conference in Davis, California. Here’s what was happening elsewhere on the web:

No more scientific Lake Wobegon: After criticism, publisher adds a “reject” option for peer reviewers

If you know Prairie Home Companion, you that that in fictional Lake Wobegon, “all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.” That’s a bit like what Harvard’s Nir Eyal found when he was asked to review a paper for Dove Medical Press. Here’s what he … Continue reading No more scientific Lake Wobegon: After criticism, publisher adds a “reject” option for peer reviewers

Blood retracts two red cell illustrations that “could have misled” readers

Blood has retracted two 2013 illustrations of red cells by researchers from South Africa and the United States because, somewhat confusingly, they didn’t conform to the journal’s criteria for publishing such material. Here’s the notice for one of the images, “Red blood cell and platelet interactions in healthy females during early and late pregnancy, as … Continue reading Blood retracts two red cell illustrations that “could have misled” readers

Author blames “young coworker” for duplication as paper is retracted

Does anyone know how to say “thrown under the bus” in Italian? A group of researchers in Italy has retracted a paper after it became clear that they had duplicated some of their previous work. Or, as one of the senior authors put it, as a “young coworker” had reused their material. Here’s the notice … Continue reading Author blames “young coworker” for duplication as paper is retracted

Journal and authors apologize “unreservedly” for distress caused to deceased child’s family by case report

Neuroskeptic featured an interesting situation over the weekend, involving a case report published in an anesthesiology journal. The case report in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care — about a six-year-old boy with a rare neurological condition who died following administration of anesthesia — caused the boy’s parents great distress when it appeared in November. Here’s the … Continue reading Journal and authors apologize “unreservedly” for distress caused to deceased child’s family by case report

Misconduct at Oxford prompts retraction of insulin paper

Cell Metabolism has retracted a 2006 article by a group of researchers at Oxford in England after an investigation concluded that the first author had committed misconduct. The paper, “Nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenase: A key role in insulin secretion,” came from the lab of Frances Ashcroft, a world-renowned expert on ion channels. (We’ve written about Ashcroft’s … Continue reading Misconduct at Oxford prompts retraction of insulin paper

Citation manipulation: Journal retracts paper because author boosted references to a journal he edits

A group of researchers have lost a paper in a computer science journal because they were apparently using its references to help the impact factor of a different journal that one of them edits. Here’s the notice for “Impacts of sensor node distributions on coverage in sensor networks,” a paper first published in 2011 and … Continue reading Citation manipulation: Journal retracts paper because author boosted references to a journal he edits

DMCA notice forces removal of post critical of author who threatened to sue Retraction Watch

A blog post at another site that picked up on our coverage of Benjamin Jacob Hayempour, the researcher who has two retractions and has threatened to sue us, has been removed following a Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice. As Andrew Oh-Willkie, the blogger, writes in an account of the incident:

Biotech company retracts Parkinson’s treatment study after “possible deviation from protocol”

Living Cell Technologies (LCT), a biotech company headquartered in Australia, has retracted a 2011 paper purporting to show that their product reversed Parkinson’s symptoms in rats after “being unable to reconfirm their reported results and a possible deviation from the protocol.” LCT is developing NTCELL, which, according to their site: