Search Results for: sting

“Stupid, it should not be done that way”: Researcher explains how duplications led to a retraction

More than two years ago, we wrote about a retraction for duplication in Biophysical Journal prompted by an email from pseudonymous whistleblower Clare Francis. That post generated a robust discussion, including one comment from someone calling himself or herself “Double Dutch.” This past weekend, the last author of that paper, Rienk van Grondelle, left a … Continue reading “Stupid, it should not be done that way”: Researcher explains how duplications led to a retraction

Doing the right thing: Authors retract brain paper with “systematic human error in coding”

A group of Swiss neurologists have lost their 2013 article in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience after reporting that their data were rendered null by coding errors. The article, “Spontaneous pre-stimulus fluctuations in the activity of right fronto-parietal areas influence inhibitory control performance,” purported to find that:

Fourth retraction results from Cardiff investigation

Researchers have retracted a fourth paper following an investigation at Cardiff University that found evidence of image manipulation by a researcher named Rossen Donev. Here’s the notice for “The mouse complement regulator CD59b is significantly expressed only in testis and plays roles in sperm acrosome activation and motility,” a paper first published in Molecular Immunology … Continue reading Fourth retraction results from Cardiff investigation

Federal court rebuffs request to discredit article that malpractice lawyers want retracted

We’re a bit late to this, but a Federal court in Massachusetts last fall heard a medical malpractice case with fascinating implications for journals. The case involved allegations by the plaintiffs — two children who had suffered permanent birth defects and their mothers — that they had lost previous malpractice suits because a fraudulent case report … Continue reading Federal court rebuffs request to discredit article that malpractice lawyers want retracted

Doing the right thing: Yale psychology lab retracts monkey papers for inaccurate coding

In the midst of the holiday season, it’s a pleasure to be able to share the story of a scientist doing the right thing at significant professional cost — especially a researcher in psychology, a field that has been battered lately by scandal. Sometime after publishing two papers — one in Developmental Science and another … Continue reading Doing the right thing: Yale psychology lab retracts monkey papers for inaccurate coding

Does science need a retraction “shame list?”

A pair of engineering researchers has analyzed the work of a handful of prolific scientific fraudsters, and has concluded that science needs a “shame list” to deter future misconduct. The paper, “Analysis and Implications of Retraction Period and Coauthorship of Fraudulent Publications,” by Jong Yong Abdiel Foo and Xin Ji Alan Tan, of  Ngee Ann … Continue reading Does science need a retraction “shame list?”

Cell, Nature, Science boycott: What was Randy Schekman’s tenure at PNAS like?

By now, Retraction Watch readers may have heard about new Nobel laureate Randy Schekman’s pledge to boycott Cell, Nature, and Science — sometimes referred to the “glamour journals” — because they damage and distort science. Schekman has used the bully pulpit of the Nobels to spark a conversation that science dearly needs to have about … Continue reading Cell, Nature, Science boycott: What was Randy Schekman’s tenure at PNAS like?

France tries husband-wife team for research misconduct in plagiarism case

We’re always glad to have guest posts, and here’s one from François-Xavier Coudert, reporting from France. As we reported the other day, a Nature editorial suggested that police involvement might be an appropriate response to research misconduct. The French seem to agree, based on reports in the media there, as Coudert writes: A husband-wife team … Continue reading France tries husband-wife team for research misconduct in plagiarism case

Vanishing citation for vanishing twin paper

The author of a paper on the phenomenon of the vanishing twin has lost the article for failure to list his co-author on the article. The paper, “Genotyping Analysis of Circulating Fetal Cells Reveals High Frequency of Vanishing Twin Following Transfer of Multiple Embryos,” had appeared earlier this year in Avicenna Journal of Medical Biotechnology, … Continue reading Vanishing citation for vanishing twin paper

Should scientific misconduct be handled by the police? It’s fraud week at Nature and Nature Medicine

It’s really hard to get papers retracted, police might be best-equipped to handle scientific misconduct investigations, and there’s finally software that will identify likely image manipulation. Those are three highlights from a number of pieces that have appeared in Nature and Nature Medicine in the past few weeks. Not surprisingly, there are common threads, so … Continue reading Should scientific misconduct be handled by the police? It’s fraud week at Nature and Nature Medicine