Weekend reads: Waste in research, a praise-worthy swift correction in NEJM, and more
The first full week of 2014 featured a slew of stories and commentary about scientific publishing and related issues. Here’s a sampling:
Search Results for: medical
Doing the right thing: Authors retract protein paper after finding experimental errors
A group of researchers in the Netherlands has retracted a paper once they realized that the findings weren’t reproducible and that there had been an error in the experiments. Here’s the notice for “Ubiquitin‐specific protease 4 is inhibited by its ubiquitin‐like domain,” by MP Luna‐Vargas, AC Faesen, WJ van Dijk, M Rape, A Fish, and … Continue reading Doing the right thing: Authors retract protein paper after finding experimental errors
First retraction appears in case of cardiologist Poldermans
Don Poldermans, the cardiology researcher in the Netherlands whose prominent career came to disgrace in a rather confusing scandal, finally has a retraction. Poldermans, formerly of Erasmus Medical Center, copped to charges of misconduct but not of fraud in the case — which, if you speak Dutch, you can read about in detail here. As … Continue reading First retraction appears in case of cardiologist Poldermans
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
Former NIH scientist falsified images in hepatitis study: ORI
A former postdoc at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) committed misconduct in a study of hepatitis by falsely claiming that data from a single trial subject were actually from more than a dozen different people, the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) has found. The investigation was prompted by allegations made by readers of the … Continue reading Former NIH scientist falsified images in hepatitis study: ORI
Stiff sentence for French researcher found guilty of plagiarizing
We have a follow-up from François-Xavier Coudert on the trial of two French odontology researchers accused of stealing from — and abetting the theft of — the work of a graduate student. A French court has ruled that French dental researcher accused of plagiarizing the thesis of a fellow student was guilty of the charge, but … Continue reading Stiff sentence for French researcher found guilty of plagiarizing
Weekend reads: How to be a good peer reviewer, the replication backlash
Another busy week at Retraction Watch. Here’s a taste of scientific publishing news from elsewhere:
Chip off the old block: Pregnancy paper yanked for plagiarism
The Journal of Pregnancy has retracted a 2012 article by a pair of researchers in Iran who lifted the contents from an article published 10 years previous. The paper, “The Effects of Fetal Gender on Serum Human Chorionic Gonadotropin and Testosterone in Normotensive and Preeclamptic Pregnancies,” was written by Nahid Lorzadeh and Sirous Kazemirad, OBs … Continue reading Chip off the old block: Pregnancy paper yanked for plagiarism
Cancer biology group notches sixth retraction, and earns an Expression of Concern
A group at the University of Texas Southwestern that retracted five papers last year has retracted one more, and has had a paper subjected to an Expression of Concern at the request of the school’s dean. Here’s the retraction notice for “DNA methylation-associated inactivation of TGFβ-related genes, DRM/Gremlin, RUNX3, and HPP1 in human cancers,” originally … Continue reading Cancer biology group notches sixth retraction, and earns an Expression of Concern
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