Search Results for: medical

Authors issue a model retraction for mistaken bacterial identity

A group in the Netherlands has retracted a case study on the diarrheal pathogen Campylobacter jejuni, commonly found in animal feces, after repeated tests showed the bacteria was actually C. fetus, which also causes spontaneous abortion in cows and sheep. The 46-year-old man who had previously had an aortic valve replacement came to the doctors with endocarditis, an inflammation of … Continue reading Authors issue a model retraction for mistaken bacterial identity

Fraud retraction appears for deceased Maryland dental researcher

A former dental researcher at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, has lost a 2009 paper in the journal Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology and Endodontology for fabricating his data on an NIH-funded study. The researcher, Mark A. Scheper, is not identified in the retraction notice as the person implicated in the university … Continue reading Fraud retraction appears for deceased Maryland dental researcher

Stem cell researcher Jacob Hanna responds to criticism

Over the past few months, there has been a great deal of criticism of the work of stem cell researcher Jacob Hanna, especially on PubPeer. Now, Hanna has responded in the comments of the PubPeer entries for a number of papers. He has also posted a number of PDFs, including his PhD thesis, and correspondence with scientists … Continue reading Stem cell researcher Jacob Hanna responds to criticism

Franken-paper from U.S. federal contractor heads to the grave

Hindawi journal PPAR Research has pulled a cancer immunology paper after discovering it contained almost no new information. Instead, it was a Frankenstein-style stitch job, containing sentences ripped from 33 different papers. 18 of those ended up in the citations; for 15 more, the authors didn’t even do them that courtesy. You can see a meticulously color-coded call … Continue reading Franken-paper from U.S. federal contractor heads to the grave

Oklahoma postdoc admits to faking data in grant application, submitted paper

A postdoc at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation faked data in a submitted paper and in a grant application, according to a new report from the Office of Research Integrity. Bin Kang admitted to the misconduct, in which he

Fat cell paper earns unusually detailed retraction

A pair of cell biologists have taken responsibility for extensive figure errors that scuttled their paper in the Journal of Cell Biology. While there were five authors, first and last authors Eva Szabo and Michal Opas took responsibility in the notice. A number of figures “contain incorrect data and/or presentation errors,” and the original data isn’t available … Continue reading Fat cell paper earns unusually detailed retraction

Weekend reads: Silenced Anil Potti whistleblower revealed; how to identify scientific crackpots

The first full week of 2015 featured a few drug company-related retractions. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

A ewe-turn: Researchers lose sleep, and paper, over miscounted sheep

A group of Chinese cardiologists at Capital Medical University have done a quick ewe-turn, pulling a paper after mixing up both the author order and wrongly reporting how many sheep were killed in the making of this experiment. We covered another retraction from the CMU cardiology department in September. The sheep paper was published in October. Here’s the notice … Continue reading A ewe-turn: Researchers lose sleep, and paper, over miscounted sheep

AIDS denialism paper retracted after Jeffrey Beall draws attention to it

A paper arguing that HIV does not cause AIDS has been retracted a few weeks after Jeffrey Beall, who tracks predatory publishers, called attention to it on his blog. Here’s what Beall wrote about the paper on December 16: The article is entitled “Basic Principles Underlying Human Physiology” [1], and you don’t have to be … Continue reading AIDS denialism paper retracted after Jeffrey Beall draws attention to it

Fake peer review fells two more papers

The number of papers retracted for fake peer reviews — well in excess of 100, by our count — continues to grow. The latest to join the list are “Rebamipide plus proton pump inhibitor versus proton pump inhibitor alone in treatment of endoscopic submucosal dissection-induced gastric ulcer: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials” and “Association … Continue reading Fake peer review fells two more papers