A journal has issued expressions of concern for a pair of 2021 meta-analyses purporting to find that ivermectin is an effective treatment for Covid-19 after data sleuths raised questions about some of the research in the studies. As we reported last fall, one of the two papers – “Ivermectin for Prevention and Treatment of COVID-19 … Continue reading Ivermectin papers slapped with expressions of concern
Last year, our group noticed an improper analysis of a purported cluster randomized trial (cRCT) in eClinicalMedicine, a Lancet journal, and requested deidentified raw data from the authors to conduct a proper analysis for the study design. Things were off to a good start. The authors shared their data immediately – which is commendable and, … Continue reading Courage and correction: how editors handle – and mishandle – errors in their journals
A Nature journal has retracted a 2021 paper which made a bold claim about certain chemical reactions after several researchers raised questions about the analysis – but not before another group pulled their own article which built on the flawed findings. The first article, “The amine-catalysed Suzuki–Miyaura-type coupling of aryl halides and arylboronic acids,” appeared … Continue reading ‘Highly professional, but the process seems to take a long time’: Is this the best way to correct the record?
A physics journal has retracted a 2017 paper after learning that the authors had tried to pass off the ideas of others as their own. Normally, we’d just call that a case of plagiarism and move on. But in this case, the charge goes a bit deeper – less cribbing a few lines of the … Continue reading Paper retracted because authors ‘misrepresented a published theoretical model as if they had found it’
An Elsevier journal has issued an expression of concern for a paper it published earlier this year by a Dutch researcher who studies the neurobiology of sexuality. The article,“Sexual orientation, neuropsychiatric disorders and the neurotransmitters involved,” was written by a group led by Dick Swaab, of the Department of Neuropsychiatric Disorders at the Netherlands Institute … Continue reading Paper on sexual orientation and neuropsychiatric disorders earns an expression of concern
Days after a leading heart journal issued an expression of concern for a meeting abstract suggesting that vaccines against Covid-19 may cause cardiac damage, its publisher, the American Heart Association (AHA), says it is reviewing how it screens such submissions. As we reported late last month, “Mrna COVID Vaccines Dramatically Increase Endothelial Inflammatory Markers and … Continue reading AHA “regrets any confusion” and is reviewing meeting policies after outcry over Covid-19 vaccine abstract
A urology researcher at Louisiana State University lost his post as department chair after a misconduct investigation, Retraction Watch has learned. But he eventually moved on to be department chair at a different LSU campus — where he remains today. In June, we reported that the work of urology researcher Hari Koul had been investigated … Continue reading Exclusive: Urology researcher demoted after misconduct investigation — then becomes chair at another school
The authors of a 2021 article on “cognitive radio” have lost the paper after the journal learned that they’d pilfered the work from a doctoral dissertation. “A Cluster-Based Distributed Cooperative Spectrum Sensing Techniques in Cognitive Radio” was published in the proceedings of the 2020 International Conference on Innovative Data Communication Technologies and Application, which was … Continue reading Paper that ripped off a PhD thesis is retracted
The authors of a 2020 case study of COVID-19 have retracted the work because they were “unsatisfied with the quality” of the work. Nor, judging from the retraction notice, should they — or the journal that published the report — be. The article was titled “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Infection Mimicking as … Continue reading Authors of a case report on COVID-19 in a prisoner say they ‘are unsatisfied with the quality of [their] work’
A paper that sought to bring some math to the idea that the spread of COVID-19 could be tracked in human excrement has been retracted because of the authors submitted it to two different Elsevier journals on the same day — and because of some eyebrow-raising behavior by the alleged peer reviewers. The first author … Continue reading COVID-19 wastewater tracking paper ends up in the sewer