Search Results for: pubpeer

Elsevier journal temporarily removes article by prolific psychologist – with a typo at “frist”

An Elsevier psychology journal took down an article in early December with a notice that appeared to be an internal memo, including a typo.  The article, a letter titled “First COVID-19 suicide case in Bangladesh due to fear of COVID-19 and xenophobia: Possible suicide prevention strategies,” was published in June of 2020 in the Asian … Continue reading Elsevier journal temporarily removes article by prolific psychologist – with a typo at “frist”

Researchers lost five papers soon after scientists critiqued another of their papers in Retraction Watch

A microbiology research group at the University of Hong Kong lost five papers for image duplication in late October, weeks after other scientists published a critique in Retraction Watch of one of the group’s COVID-19 articles.  The paper on COVID-19 was published in Cell in 2021 and was led by Patrick Chiu Yat Woo and … Continue reading Researchers lost five papers soon after scientists critiqued another of their papers in Retraction Watch

PLOS flags nearly 50 papers by controversial French COVID researcher for ethics concerns

The publisher PLOS is marking nearly 50 articles by Didier Raoult, the French scientist who became controversial for promoting hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID-19, with expressions of concern while it investigates potential research ethics violations in the work.  PLOS has been looking into more than 100 articles by Raoult, but determined that the issues in 49 … Continue reading PLOS flags nearly 50 papers by controversial French COVID researcher for ethics concerns

Professor emeritus loses fourth paper after UCSF-VA investigation, five years after other retractions

A former research center director and professor emeritus of urology has lost a fourth paper after a joint investigation by the University of California San Francisco and the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center found faked data in several of his articles.  The other three retractions for Rajvir Dahiya, who directed the UCSF/VAMC Urology Research … Continue reading Professor emeritus loses fourth paper after UCSF-VA investigation, five years after other retractions

A paper used capital T’s instead of error bars. But wait, there’s more!

Mere days after tweets went viral pointing out  that the purported error bars in one figure of a paper were really just the capital letter T, the publisher has marked it with an expression of concern. [12/22/22: The paper has now been retracted; see an update on this post.] And that’s not all that’s strange about … Continue reading A paper used capital T’s instead of error bars. But wait, there’s more!

Biotech exec stole an image and reused others while in academia, US federal watchdog says

A pioneer in the field of exosome biology engaged in research misconduct by reusing images he had falsely relabeled in two published papers and several grant applications, according to a U.S. government research watchdog.  The case goes back several years, as the scientist’s former institution seems to have been investigating his work for nearly a … Continue reading Biotech exec stole an image and reused others while in academia, US federal watchdog says

Weekend reads: A whistleblower finds possible misconduct — again; embracing failure; radical transparency for journals

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 268. There are more than 36,000 retractions in our database — which powers retraction alerts in EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most … Continue reading Weekend reads: A whistleblower finds possible misconduct — again; embracing failure; radical transparency for journals

Meet a sleuth whose work has resulted in more than 850 retractions

Nick Wise had always been “slightly interested” in research integrity and fraud, just from working in science.  Then, last July, from following image sleuth Elisabeth Bik on Twitter, he learned about the work of Guillaume Cabanac, Cyril Labbé, and Alexander Magazinov identifying “tortured phrases” in published papers.  Such phrases – such as “bosom peril,” meaning … Continue reading Meet a sleuth whose work has resulted in more than 850 retractions

Paper co-authored by Australian journalist Maryanne Demasi to be marked with expression of concern

Another article co-authored by Australian journalist Maryanne Demasi will be marked with an expression of concern for image duplication, Retraction Watch has learned.  Demasi’s reporting has cast doubt on statins and raised the possibility of a link between wi-fi and brain tumors – controversial claims she and co-authors have previously told us they believe made … Continue reading Paper co-authored by Australian journalist Maryanne Demasi to be marked with expression of concern

Catch and kill: What it’s like to try to get a NEJM paper corrected

Last month,  the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) published a letter to the editor and a response reflecting a quite modest correction.  Essentially, the three letters “miR” will be removed from throughout a manuscript as the data, to date, do not support there being a human novel microRNA blood-based biomarker for myocarditis, as the … Continue reading Catch and kill: What it’s like to try to get a NEJM paper corrected