Search Results for: nature

Faking data earns stem cell researcher a ban on federal funding

The Office of Research Integrity (ORI) has sanctioned Kaushik Deb, a former post-doc at the University of Missouri-Columbia, who “engaged in misconduct in science by intentionally, knowingly, and recklessly” fabricating data in papers in both Science and Nature (which ultimately rejected his manuscript). Deb was big news in 2007, when Science retracted his paper. Articles … Continue reading Faking data earns stem cell researcher a ban on federal funding

Weekend reads: Death of a scientist; Science, the Lake Wobegon of experiments

News elsewhere about scientific integrity, publishing, and related issues abounded this week:

Is Rolling Stone retracting its story on UVA sexual assault?

Rolling Stone has published an editor’s note that calls into question their November 19 story, “A Rape on Campus,” which details a UVA student’s alleged gang rape at a fraternity party and her subsequent struggle to get justice from the school. Shortly after publication, the magazine was criticized for not seeking a statement from the … Continue reading Is Rolling Stone retracting its story on UVA sexual assault?

COPD paper in JCI retracted following PubPeer critiques

A 2011 paper in the Journal of Clinical Investigation whose PubPeer entry we highlighted in September has been retracted. Here’s the notice for “Denitrosylation of HDAC2 by targeting Nrf2 restores glucocorticosteroid sensitivity in macrophages from COPD patients,” a 2011 paper by researchers at Johns Hopkins and Imperial College:

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

Weekend reads: Former vice chancellor sent to jail for plagiarism; peer reviewers getting tired

This week, we published a feature in Nature on how some researchers are gaming peer review systems to review their own papers. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

PubPeer Selections: Male vs. female brains, health care serial killers, corrections on the way

Here’s another installment of PubPeer Selections:

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?