If you’ve ever submitted a paper, you know that many journals ask authors to suggest experts who can peer review your work. That’s understandable; after all, as science becomes more and more specialized, it becomes harder to find reviewers knowledgeable in smaller niches. Human nature being what it is, however, it would seem natural for … Continue reading Should authors be encouraged to pick their own peer reviewers?
We have a bizarre tale to relate involving the journal Surgery News, which recently lost its editor-in-chief over a rather strange editorial he wrote in the February issue of the magazine. The ill-fated — and, we’ll stipulate, ill-advised — commentary has led to a de facto retraction of the entire publication — meaning that although … Continue reading Forget chocolate on Valentine’s Day, try semen, says Surgery News editor. Retraction, resignation follow
A new retraction has appeared in the journal Cell. The article, “DNA-PKcs-PIDDosome: A Nuclear Caspase-2-Activating Complex with Role in G2/M Checkpoint Maintenance,” had initially appeared in February 2009. According to the notice:
Graham Ellis-Davies says January 25th was one of the worst days of his life. That was when the journal ChemBioChem retracted an article, published barely two weeks earlier, for a mistake Ellis-Davies blames squarely on himself. The fallout has been nearly two months of painful self-recrimination, a tattered friendship and, perhaps most significant, he adds, … Continue reading Aftermath: Gut-wrenching misstep leads to retraction, frayed feelings and a paperless postdoc
Self-plagiarism alert: A very similar version of this post is being published online in Anesthesiology News, where one of us (AM) is managing editor. Anesthesia & Analgesia has retracted 22 papers by Joachim Boldt, the discredited German anesthesiologist whose prolific career as a researcher has unraveled with stunning rapidity — and 67 more retractions are … Continue reading 22 papers by Joachim Boldt retracted, and 67 likely on the way
When the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine retracted four publications (two papers, two abstracts) by Edward Erin, who is now sitting in an English jail for having attempted to poison his mistress to induce an abortion, it appeared that the damage to the medical literature might be far worse. Erin’s name had … Continue reading Allergy journal clears studies linked to jailed U.K. researcher Erin
Since we first wrote about the travails of Spirocor’s bedside, noninvasive test for coronary artery disease, we’ve been trying, without much success, to find out more information. But as they say about every dog, our day has come. As we initially reported, Ron Waksman, a prominent Washington, D.C. cardiologist and editor-in-chief of Cardiovascular and Revascularization … Continue reading More on SPIROCOR noninvasive heart disease test: Second retraction (in fact the first) says little
A retraction in an obscure journal. An equally obscure retraction notice. An Israeli company with no web presence. Conflicts of interest involving authors and editors. That’s what we’ve uncovered so far after noticing the other day that the American Journal of the Medical Sciences (AJMS) had retracted a May 2010 article by a group of … Continue reading Tangled leads: Cardiac study retraction reveals a company’s stopped trials, and lots of questions
Self-plagiarism alert: A very similar version of this post is being published online in Anesthesiology News, where one of us (AM) is managing editor. Unglaublich is the German word for unbelievable, and it’s an apt description for the latest development in the case of Joachim Boldt. Boldt, a prominent German anesthesiologist, has been at the … Continue reading Unglaublich! Boldt investigation may lead to more than 90 retractions
With the third retraction of a paper by Anil Potti this weekend, plus details of various investigations dribbling out, we decided to check in with the world’s two leading medical journals about whether they planned to retract the papers of Potti’s they’d published. JAMA published two papers by Potti and colleagues: One, “Gene Expression Signatures, … Continue reading No Potti retractions on the horizon from JAMA, NEJM