Search Results for: nature

Shigeaki Kato up to 33 retractions, with five papers cited a total of 450 times

Former University of Tokyo researcher Shigeaki Kato continues to put big numbers on the board. Last month, we reported on his 26th, 27th, and 28th retractions, all in Nature Cell Biology and cited close to 700 times. Yesterday, EMBO Journal and EMBO Reports published a total of five more retractions for the endocrinology researcher, who … Continue reading Shigeaki Kato up to 33 retractions, with five papers cited a total of 450 times

The Peer Review Scam: How authors are reviewing their own papers

Yesterday, we reported on the discovery by BioMed Central that there were about 50 papers in their editorial system whose authors had recommended fake peer reviewers. Those “reviewers” had submitted reviews of a number of manuscripts, and five of the papers had been published. (BMC posted a blog examining the case this morning.) For some … Continue reading The Peer Review Scam: How authors are reviewing their own papers

“I’m so done with it”: Conservationist speaks out against sexism in science

Last week, we wrote about conservationist Stuart Pimm receiving criticism for casual sexism in a recent book review. The journal did not retract the review, but it released an editor’s note condemning the language Pimm used, including quoting a movie scene in which a man told a woman “I don’t take whores in taxis.” Some … Continue reading “I’m so done with it”: Conservationist speaks out against sexism in science

Are lawyers ruining science?

Regular Retraction Watch readers may have noticed that legal issues seem to be popping up more often in the cases we cover. There has been a lawsuit filed against PubPeer commenters, for example, and Nature last month blamed lawyers for delayed and opaque retraction notices. It was those cases and others that prompted us to … Continue reading Are lawyers ruining science?

Weekend reads: Novartis fires scientist for faking data; journal accepts F-bomb-laden spam paper

The week at Retraction Watch began with a case of a South Korean engineer who had to retract ten studies at once. Here’s what was happening elsewhere, along with an update on a story we covered a few days ago:

‘‘I don’t take whores in taxis”: Casual sexism in scientific journal leads to editor’s note

The Elsevier journal Biological Conservation has put out an apology, but not a retraction, after outcry over a bizarre, misogynistic non sequitur in a book review by Duke conservation biologist Stuart Pimm. Here’s the introduction to Pimm’s review of Keeping the Wild: Against the Domestication of Earth, which went online in October ahead of its December print publication:

Updated: Former Vanderbilt scientist faked nearly 70 images, will retract 6 papers: ORI

A former Vanderbilt University biomedical engineer committed fraud on a massive scale, according to a new Office of Research Integrity (ORI) report. Igor Dzhura is banned from receiving federal funding for three years, and is retracting six papers, which have been cited more than 500 times. Since leaving Vanderbilt, he has worked at SUNY Upstate … Continue reading Updated: Former Vanderbilt scientist faked nearly 70 images, will retract 6 papers: ORI

“Conscious fabrication” leads to retraction of diabetes study

Diabetologia has retracted a 2011 meeting abstract from a group in Sweden, indicating that the second author has been found guilty of research misconduct — a charge the scientist denies. The abstract, “Reduced syntaxin-5 in skeletal muscle of patients with type 2 diabetes is linked to increased diacylglycerol, activation of PKCtheta and impaired insulin signalling,” … Continue reading “Conscious fabrication” leads to retraction of diabetes study