Search Results for: nature

Amid a legal dispute, journal downgrades a retraction to an expression of concern

The journal Cell Cycle is expressing a “note” of concern about a 2012 paper by a former researcher at the University of Minnesota, who has claimed that her mentor at the institution was violating her copyright. It turns out the journal had briefly retracted the paper, but reversed itself with the expression of concern — … Continue reading Amid a legal dispute, journal downgrades a retraction to an expression of concern

Cell attributes image problems in cloning paper to “minor” errors; sees no impact on conclusions

Yesterday we reported that Cell was looking into problematic images in a recent paper on human embryonic stem cell cloning. We’ve now heard from the journal about the nature of the inquiry. Mary Beth O’Leary, a spokeswoman for Cell Press — an Elsevier title — tells us that: Based on our own initial in-house assessment … Continue reading Cell attributes image problems in cloning paper to “minor” errors; sees no impact on conclusions

Tenth retraction appears for Jesús Lemus, this one in PLOS ONE

Just two days ago, we covered the ninth retraction for Jesús Lemus, “the veterinary researcher whose work colleagues have had trouble verifying, including being unable to confirm the identity of one of his co-authors.” And already another of his retractions has appeared in one of our daily alerts. This one appears in PLOS ONE, for … Continue reading Tenth retraction appears for Jesús Lemus, this one in PLOS ONE

Half of researchers have reported trouble reproducing published findings: MD Anderson survey

Readers of this blog — and anyone who has been following the Anil Potti saga — know that MD Anderson Cancer Center was the source of initial concerns about the reproducibility of the studies Potti, and his supervisor, Joseph Nevins, were publishing in high profile journals. So the Houston institution has a rep for dealing … Continue reading Half of researchers have reported trouble reproducing published findings: MD Anderson survey

“Bird vocalizations” and other best-ever plagiarism excuses: A wrap-up of the 3rd World Conference on Research Integrity

What are the best excuses you’ve seen for plagiarism? James Kroll, at the National Science Foundation’s Office of Inspector General, has collected a bunch over the years (click on the image to enlarge):

Referencing failure (we mean, plagiarism) leads to retraction of water testing paper

From the Not Saying What You Mean Files: Environmental Monitoring and Assessment has retracted a recent article by authors in Kuwait who appear to have plagiarized, although you couldn’t really tell from the notice. The paper, “Detection of bacterial endotoxin in drinking tap and bottled water in Kuwait,” appeared in the December 2012 issue of … Continue reading Referencing failure (we mean, plagiarism) leads to retraction of water testing paper

UCL finds errors in work by biologist Cossu, but no “deliberate intention to mislead”

A cell biologist at University College London (UCL) who has had one paper retracted and another corrected has been cleared of misconduct by the university. The news, first reported by Times Higher Education, comes after a retraction of a paper by Giulio Cossu prompted by pseudonymous whistleblower Clare Francis that we wrote about in January. … Continue reading UCL finds errors in work by biologist Cossu, but no “deliberate intention to mislead”

Failure to reproduce experiments, errors lead to retraction of pancreatic cancer paper

The authors of a paper in Laboratory Investigation have retracted it after they were unable to “reproduce key experiments,” and discovered “several minor errors.” Here’s the retraction notice for “Slug enhances invasion ability of pancreatic cancer cells through upregulation of matrix metalloproteinase-9 and actin cytoskeleton remodeling,” by Liqun Wu and colleagues of The Affiliated Hospital of … Continue reading Failure to reproduce experiments, errors lead to retraction of pancreatic cancer paper

Retraction 12 appears for Alirio Melendez, this one for plagiarism

The twelfth of Alirio Melendez’s 20-something retractions has appeared, in Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology. Along with the retraction notice, the journal runs letters from the paper’s two co-authors. Melendez writes:

Update on “greatly enhanced” photonics paper, with two corrections — one by journal, one by us

Last month we wrote about a paper in Nature Photonics that, because of a measurement error, had to be retracted. It turns out that wasn’t the only problem with the article — but we’re afraid that the glitch requires us to issue a correction. The article, “Greatly enhanced continuous-wave terahertz emission by nano-electrodes in a … Continue reading Update on “greatly enhanced” photonics paper, with two corrections — one by journal, one by us