On Tuesday, we reported on the case of a retraction notice in Molecular Biology and Evolution, an Oxford University Press (OUP) journal, that had three problems:
A completely unhelpful retraction notice appears in the September issue of Molecular Biology and Evolution for “Investigating the Role of Natural Selection on Coding Sequence Evolution in Salmonids Through NGS Data Mining,” a paper first published in March. Here’s the entire notice for the paper — which has been removed completely from the journal’s site, … Continue reading Author of retracted Molecular Biology and Evolution paper explains opaque notice that’ll still cost you $32
If your week flew by — we know ours did — catch up here with what you might have missed. The week at Retraction Watch featured: In case you missed the news, the Hijacked Journal Checker now has more than 400 entries. The Retraction Watch Database has over 63,000 retractions. Our list of COVID-19 retractions … Continue reading Weekend reads: Why 500 retractions per month matter; another EOC for former Stanford president; and an argument for ‘slow science’
Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up past 500. There are more than 60,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains more than 300 titles. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most retractions lately … Continue reading Weekend reads: Journal says no to RFK Jr.; another Microsoft quantum computing correction; ‘Journal Impact Nonsense’
Unverifiable researchers are a harbinger of paper mill activity. While journals have clues to identifying fake personas — lack of professional affiliation, no profile on ORCID or strings of random numbers in email addresses, to name a few — there isn’t a standard template for doing so. The International Association of Scientific, Technical, & Medical … Continue reading Can a better ID system for authors, reviewers and editors reduce fraud? STM thinks so
Scientific Reports has retracted a controversial paper claiming to present evidence an ancient city in the Middle East was destroyed by an exploding celestial body – an event the authors suggested could have inspired the Biblical account of Sodom and Gomorrah. The decision comes two years after Scientific Reports, a Springer Nature title, published an … Continue reading Sodom comet paper to be retracted two years after editor’s note acknowledging concerns
Citing eLife’s unusual practice of publishing articles without accepting or rejecting them, Clarivate says it is re-evaluating the inclusion of the open-access biology journal in Web of Science, its influential database of abstracts and citations. In contrast to the other journals recently placed on hold from indexing, including Elsevier’s Science of the Total Environment, Clarivate … Continue reading eLife latest in string of major journals put on hold from Web of Science
Zulfiqar Habib, dean of computer science at COMSATS University Islamabad, in Pakistan, was appalled when he discovered part of a former PhD student’s dissertation had been published in a scientific journal. After all, the former student, Kurshid Asghar, had been dead for more than a year by the time the manuscript was submitted to Security … Continue reading Wiley reopens plagiarism case about dead researcher’s work
Pleading emails requesting papers are regular visitors to one’s inbox. These unsolicited and flattering requests promise rapid publication and tempt authors to part with their work. Even master’s and doctoral students, after graduation, receive sweet-talking requests to publish their dissertations as a book, a book chapter, or as a paper. Predatory journals and publishers are … Continue reading Journals going rogue, authors beware
The news of Zahra Jalilian’s death seemed to change as quickly as it spread. On Dec. 4, 2022, the University of Tehran announced that the nanotechnology graduate student had died following “a tragic self-harm incident.” Political opposition groups quickly countered that darker forces were likely at work, attributing the 31-year-old Ph.D. student’s death to Islamic mercenaries, government functionaries, and other … Continue reading In the Death of an Iranian Scientist, Hints of Unchecked Strife