Search Results for: nature

Second retraction for Czech fraudster Bezouska, who broke into lab

Earlier this month we wrote about the retraction by Nature of a 19-year-old paper by Karel Bezouska, a former star researcher at Prague’s Charles University whose “dangerous and irresponsible deviations” from acceptable practice went as far as tampering with refrigerated samples to cover his tracks. BMC Biotechnology has retracted another Bezouska paper, this one from … Continue reading Second retraction for Czech fraudster Bezouska, who broke into lab

“Why Has the Number of Scientific Retractions Increased?” New study tries to answer

The title of this post is the title of a new study in PLOS ONE by three researchers whose names Retraction Watch readers may find familiar: Grant Steen, Arturo Casadevall, and Ferric Fang. Together and separately, they’ve examined retraction trends in a number of papers we’ve covered. Their new paper tries to answer a question … Continue reading “Why Has the Number of Scientific Retractions Increased?” New study tries to answer

Time for a scientific journal Reproducibility Index

Retraction Watch readers are by now more than likely familiar with the growing concerns over reproducibility in science. In response to issues in fields from cancer research to psychology, scientists have come up with programs such as the Reproducibility Initiative and the Open Science Framework. These sorts of efforts are important experiments in ensuring that … Continue reading Time for a scientific journal Reproducibility Index

Cell line mixup causes retraction of paper on blood vessel damage

We’ve written before about retractions for cell lines that turn out not to be what researchers thought they were. In a few cases, that has involved contamination by HeLa cells, named for Henrietta Lacks. Today, we note the retraction of a paper whose authors, from Taiwan, thought they were using human muscle cells that line … Continue reading Cell line mixup causes retraction of paper on blood vessel damage

Authors of retracted sex paper won Ig Nobel for MRI study of coitus — and had another retraction

Yesterday we reported on the retraction for data misuse and plagiarism of a 21-year-old paper on sex and female cancer patients. Turns out we missed a couple of rather interesting details about the authors of the pulled article. One tidbit, for example, is that one of them, Willibrord Weijmar Schultz,  is science royalty, having been a … Continue reading Authors of retracted sex paper won Ig Nobel for MRI study of coitus — and had another retraction

Kidney International paper retracted after lab records “were improperly filed”

A group of University of California, Davis kidney researchers have retracted a paper after being unable to verify key parts of it. Here’s the detailed retraction notice for “Proteinuria decreases tissue lipoprotein receptor levels resulting in altered lipoprotein structure and increasing lipid levels,” published by Limin Wang, George Kaysen, and colleagues in Kidney International last … Continue reading Kidney International paper retracted after lab records “were improperly filed”

Updated: Integrity “uncertain,” journal retracts stroke paper

Experimental & Molecular Medicine has retracted a 2012 paper on stroke by a group of South Korean researchers after learning that one of the figures in the article was unreliable. The article was titled “Protective effects of transduced Tat-DJ-1 protein against oxidative stress and ischemic brain injury,” and it came from a team at Hallym … Continue reading Updated: Integrity “uncertain,” journal retracts stroke paper

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