If you wanted to minimize the real-life effects of misconduct, you might note that some of the retractions we cover are in tiny obscure journals hardly anyone reads. But a new meta-analysis and editorial in JAMA today suggests — as a study by Grant Steen did a few years ago — that the risk of … Continue reading Does scientific misconduct cause patient harm? The case of Joachim Boldt
Today brings two journal editorials about misconduct and retractions. They take, if we may, a bit of an optimistic and perhaps even blindered approach. In an editorial titled “Scientific misconduct occurs, but is rare,” Boston University’s Richard Primack, editor of Biological Conservation, highlights a Corrigendum of a paper by Jesus Angel Lemus, the veterinary researcher … Continue reading Not in my journal: Two editors take stock of misconduct in their fields — and don’t find much
If you went looking for ten of our posts about Anil Potti today, you would have seen error messages instead. That’s because someone claiming to be from a news site in India alleged we violated their copyright with those ten posts about the former Duke University cancer researcher who has had 19 papers retracted, corrected, … Continue reading WordPress removes Anil Potti posts from Retraction Watch in error after false DMCA copyright claim
A group of surgeons in Cairo, Egypt have retracted their 2012 paper in the International Journal of Women’s Health for plagiarism, although that’s not quite what they’re calling it. Here’s the notice:
A review paper published in the Serbian journal Medicinski pregled (Medical review) has been retracted for plagiarising a 2002 paper published in the Croatian Journal of Infection (or Infektološki glasnik). The retraction note (in Serbian only) in the current issue (vol. 65, issue 11-12) of Medicinski pregled, published by the Society of Physicians of Vojvodina of the … Continue reading Lyme disease diagnostics review retracted for plagiarism
A top cardiology researcher, Robert Hegele, of the Robarts Research Institute at the University of Western Ontario, has retracted a 15-year-old review after editors were made aware that it was “very similar” to another of his reviews. Here’s the December 2012 notice for the paper, which has been cited 23 times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web … Continue reading Duplication leads to retraction of 1997 paper on heart disease genes
Keeping up with the various investigations into the activities of Yoshitaka Fujii — the assumed record holder for retractions by a single author, with 172 likely — can be a challenge. Between the journals pulling his papers and the institutions looking into his misconduct, it’s hard to keep everything straight. But we have a new … Continue reading Retraction record broken, again: University report should up Fujii total to 183
Medical and Veterinary Entomology has retracted a 2010 paper by a group of German researchers who populated the article with data from previously published studies. The article, titled “Established and emerging pathogens in Ixodes ricinus ticks collected from birds on a conservation island in the Baltic Sea,” looked at the potential role of migrating birds … Continue reading Tick-borne disease paper retracted for data reuse
Dongqing Li, a nanotechnology expert at the University of Waterloo in Canada, has been suspended without pay for four months resulting from an investigation into a paper he published that contained rampant plagiarism. Oh, and the offending article appeared in a journal Li founded — and of which he was the top editor. The Globe … Continue reading University of Waterloo suspends researcher who published plagiarized paper — in his own journal
Milena Penkowa, the former University of Copenhagen scientist found by her university to have embezzled grant funds and to have possibly committed misconduct in 15 papers, has another retraction. An international panel released its findings in July, as Nature reported then: