Retraction Watch

A tale of one exceedingly clear retraction notice, and two nonexistent ones

In the market for an admirably clear and concise retraction notice? Look no further!

A researcher in China has lost one — well, maybe two, more on that in a moment — 2015 articles for falsification of data and other misconduct. And one of the journals he tried to dupe is having none of it.

The papers appeared in Tissue Engineering, which is published by Mary Ann Liebert. A related, but yet unretracted, article was in the Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine, a Springer title. The focus of the case is Xing Wei, of the, National Engineering Research Center of Genetic Medicine at Jinan University, in Guangzhou.

Here’s the retraction notice:

Former UCSD prof who resigned amid investigation into China ties retracts paper for ‘inadvertently misidentified’ images

Kang Zhang, a formerly high-profile geneticist at the University of California, San Diego, who resigned his post last July amidst an investigation into undisclosed ties to China, has retracted a paper because some of its images were taken from other researchers’ work.

The paper, “Impaired lipid metabolism by age-dependent DNA methylation alterations accelerates aging,” was submitted to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) last fall, months after Zhang’s resignation. One of Zhang’s fellow corresponding authors, Jian-Kang Zhu, used the journal’s “Contributed Submissions” process, in which “An NAS member may contribute up to two of her or his own manuscripts for publication in PNAS each year.”

PNAS published the paper on February 6 of this year. But on February 18, authors of a different paper, in Aging Cell, sent the editors of PNAS a letter, writing:

Weekend reads: Why coronavirus papers need a warning label; scientists correct the record

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Sending thoughts to our readers and wishing them the best in this uncertain time.

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

A researcher who felt “shocked” and “physically ill” — but still corrected the record.
A retraction mystery in which none of the authors of a paper knew anything about it.
The retraction of a paper in Nature after years of scrutiny.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

A German vocabulary lesson: Paper retracted because an “individuelle Heilversuche” is not a clinical trial

by mcmurryjulie

A co-editor of the Journal of Neurology has retracted a 2018 paper he helped write because the way the paper was written misled readers about the nature of the research.

The article, “Menière’s disease: combined pharmacotherapy with betahistine and the MAO-B inhibitor selegiline—an observational study,” purported to describe the effects of a combination treatment to reduce the incidence of dizziness in people with Menière’s, a neurologic disorder that affects the inner ear.

The first author of the paper is Michael Strupp, of the Munich Center for Neurosciences at Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. Strupp also is one of a troika of editors in-chief of the Journal of Neurology.

According to the abstract:

“I was shocked. I felt physically ill.” And still, she corrected the record.

Two years ago, Julia Strand, an assistant professor of psychology at Carleton College, published a paper in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review about how people strain to listen in crowded spaces (think: when they’re doing the opposite of social distancing).

The article, titled “Talking points: A modulating circle reduces listening effort without improving speech recognition,” was a young scientist’s fantasy — splashy, fascinating findings in a well-known journal — and, according to Strand, it gave her fledgling career a jolt.

The data were “gorgeous,” she said, initially replicable and well-received:

A mystery: “none of the authors listed had any involvement with or knowledge of the article”

Even after close to 10 years of writing about retractions every day, some days we read retraction notices that make us say, “huh?”

Today is one of those days.

Take this retraction notice for “High-resolution ultrasound images in gouty arthritis to evaluate relationship between tophi and bone erosion,” a paper first published in Future Generation Computer Systems last year:

U Maryland group up to three retractions following investigation

A researcher at the University of Maryland, along with two former colleagues, has had three papers retracted in the past six months following an institutional investigation that found evidence of image manipulation.

The three retractions share three authors: Hua Zhou, Ying Hua Yang and John Basile, an associate professor of oncology and diagnostic sciences at the institution. The original papers appeared in Angiogenesis and PLOS ONE between 2011 and 2013.

Basile told Retraction Watch that he was prohibited from discussing the matter, based on statements from the university’s investigation committee, but that he did not think other papers from his lab co-authored with Zhou would be retracted.

One of the articles, “Semaphorin 4D cooperates with VEGF to promote angiogenesis and tumor progression,” has been cited 46 times, according to Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science. Here’s the retraction notice from Angiogenesis, which was published earlier this month:

Nature paper on cancer retracted after years of scrutiny

Following five years of criticism, a group of researchers based at Stanford and elsewhere have retracted a 2006 paper in Nature for “image anomalies.”

The notice for “Lysyl oxidase is essential for hypoxia-induced metastasis” reads:

Weekend reads: Coronavirus meets scientific publishing; publish or perish loses in court; retractions in cancer research

Sending thoughts to our readers and wishing them the best in this uncertain time.

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

JAMA sounding the alarm about coronavirus data;
the retraction of a paper claiming a link between statins and lowered glaucoma risk;
a journal frustrated by a university’s inaction.

Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Frustrated by a university’s lack of action, a journal retracts

Expression of concern, meet expression of frustration.

Eight months ago, in the wake of skepticism about the data in a 2017 paper it had published, the Obstetrics & Gynecology issued an EoC about the article. At the time, the journal, an official title of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said it had contacted the authors’ institution — Menoufia University in Shibin Al Kawm, Egypt — about the article.

Those efforts evidently met with silence. Now the journal has retracted the paper, “Sildenafil citrate therapy for oligohydramnios: a randomized controlled trial,” with a swipe at the school’s apparent lack of interest in the misdeeds of its faculty members:

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