Retraction Watch

A major new report about the dramatic warming of the oceans cites a 2018 Nature paper on the topic that was retracted earlier this week — the same day, in fact, that the report dropped.

But one of the authors of that paper tells Retraction Watch that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report, released September 25, must have meant to cite a different paper by the same authors. 

The report concluded that:

It is virtually certain that the global ocean has warmed unabated since 1970 and has taken up more than 90% of the excess heat in the climate system (high confidence). Since 1993, the rate of ocean warming has more than doubled (likely).

In a section on global carbon burden, the document states that: 

Continue reading Did the IPCC’s new oceans report mean to cite a now-retracted paper?

Nature is retracting a 2018 paper which found that the oceans are warming much faster than predicted by previous models of climate change.

The article, “Quantification of ocean heat uptake from changes in atmospheric O2 and CO2 composition,” appeared at last October but quickly drew the attention of an influential critic who said the analysis was flawed. 

The authors agreed, and within three weeks the paper received the following update: 

Continue reading Nature paper on ocean warming retracted

Nature is rescinding an award to a Spanish researcher whose group has at least nine retractions for problems with their published images. 

The journal in 2017 gave Carlos López-Otín, of the University of Oviedo, its mid-career achievement mentoring prize for Spanish scientists — along with a physicist from Barcelona — citing: 

the ability of these scientists to instil confidence in self-doubting trainees, and of their motivational skills. 

But two years – and a slew of retractions — later, it seems Nature’s own doubts about López-Otín’s skills as a mentor were too great to ignore.

Continue reading Nature walks back mentorship prize for Spanish scientist with nine retractions