Search Results for: doing the right thing

‘Misleading and inaccurate information’: Rocky tenure for high mountain paper as complaints prompt retraction

A journal has retracted a study that sought to dispel fears about the risks — real and inflated — associated with travel to high altitudes after receiving complaints from a group of experts who found fault with the paper.  That’s the official version. The backstory is somewhat more complex.  “Acute Mountain Sickness, High Altitude Pulmonary … Continue reading ‘Misleading and inaccurate information’: Rocky tenure for high mountain paper as complaints prompt retraction

Medical journal retracts article on “tribalism” after readers call it offensive

A journal has retracted — and replaced — an article on “tribalism” in medicine and deleted a tweet about it, too, after readers complained that the language in the piece was offensive to Indigenous peoples.  The article, which appeared in the Journal of Hospital Medicine in April, was titled “Tribalism: The Good, The Bad, and … Continue reading Medical journal retracts article on “tribalism” after readers call it offensive

How can universities and journals work together better on misconduct allegations?

Retractions, expressions of concern, and corrections often arise from reader critiques sent by readers, whether those readers are others in the field, sleuths, or other interested parties. In many of those cases, journals seek the input of authors’ employers, often universities. In a recent paper in Research Integrity and Peer Review, longtime scientific publishing consultant … Continue reading How can universities and journals work together better on misconduct allegations?

Rejection overruled, retraction ensues when annoyed reviewer does deep dive into data

As a prominent criminologist, Kim Rossmo often gets asked to review manuscripts. So it was that he found himself reviewing a meta-analysis by a pair of Dutch researchers — Wim Bernasco and Remco van Dijke, of the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement, in Amsterdam — looking at a phenomenon called … Continue reading Rejection overruled, retraction ensues when annoyed reviewer does deep dive into data

Journal retracts paper by ‘miracle doctor’ claiming life force kills cancer cells

A “miracle doctor” in China and his colleagues have lost a 2007 paper on the ability of the martial art qigong to treat cancer after the journal that published the work said it failed to properly vet the findings. Well, the first part of that is true. The second part is implied. We’ll explain.  The … Continue reading Journal retracts paper by ‘miracle doctor’ claiming life force kills cancer cells

‘No malicious intent’: Authors retract week-old Science Advances paper based on embargoed data

The authors of a paper in Science Advances on methanogens — archaea that produce methane — have retracted the work a week after its publication because they included genetic data that violated an embargo.  The article, published on February 10, was titled “A methylotrophic origin of methanogenesis and early divergence of anaerobic multicarbon alkane metabolism,” … Continue reading ‘No malicious intent’: Authors retract week-old Science Advances paper based on embargoed data

‘I thought I had messed up my experiment’: How a grad student discovered an error that might affect hundreds of papers

Earlier this month, we reported on how Susanne Stoll, a graduate student in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University College London, discovered an error that toppled a highly-cited 2014 article — and which might affect hundreds of other papers in the field of perception. We spoke with Stoll about the experience.  Retraction Watch … Continue reading ‘I thought I had messed up my experiment’: How a grad student discovered an error that might affect hundreds of papers

Publisher retracts 14 papers by doctor who ran afoul of U.S. FDA for marketing supplements

Dove Press last week retracted 14 papers by Marty Hinz, a Minnesota doctor who caught the attention of the U.S. FDA years ago for hyping supplements sold by a company he once owned. The 14 articles — on the use of supplements to treat conditions ranging from Crohn’s disease to Parkinson’s disease — were among … Continue reading Publisher retracts 14 papers by doctor who ran afoul of U.S. FDA for marketing supplements

The grad student who found a fatal error that may affect lots of papers

A team of researchers in England has retracted a 2014 paper after a graduate student affiliated with the group found a fatal error while trying to replicate parts of the work — and which might affect similar studies by other scientists, as well. The article, “Perceptual load affects spatial tuning of neuronal populations in human … Continue reading The grad student who found a fatal error that may affect lots of papers

Journal retracts 70-year-old article on homosexuality for “long discredited beliefs, prejudices, and practices”

We wrote in September in WIRED about a trend among journals of purging racist and sexist work from their archives. To that trend we can now add papers that are homophobic and racist. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease has retracted a 1951 article by one Benjamin H. Glover, at the time a professor … Continue reading Journal retracts 70-year-old article on homosexuality for “long discredited beliefs, prejudices, and practices”