Search Results for: third party

Give or take a year or two: Case reveals publishers’ vastly different retraction times

On March 1, 2022, Eric Ross, then a psychiatrist-in-training in Boston, alerted two major publishers to a pair of disturbingly similar papers he suspected had been “fabricated.”  “The articles are written by the same corresponding author and contain much of the same unrealistic data,” Ross, now an assistant professor at the University of Vermont, in … Continue reading Give or take a year or two: Case reveals publishers’ vastly different retraction times

What’s in a name? Made-up authors are penning dozens of papers

Researchers apparently don’t need to be real to publish in scientific journals.  Take Nicholas Zafetti of Clemson University, in South Carolina, who has at least nine publications to his name. Or Giorgos Jimenez of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with 12 papers under his belt. Both identities seem to be bogus, according to Alexander Magazinov, a … Continue reading What’s in a name? Made-up authors are penning dozens of papers

‘Super Size Me’: What happened when marketing researchers ordered a double retraction?

A year after the authors of two papers contacted the marketing journal where they had been published requesting retraction, the journal has pulled one, but decided to issue a correction for the other.  In April, we reported that the Journal of Consumer Research was investigating “Super Size Me: Product Size as a Signal of Status,” … Continue reading ‘Super Size Me’: What happened when marketing researchers ordered a double retraction?

Sage retracts more than 200 papers from journal for compromised peer review

The publisher Sage has retracted 209 articles from an engineering journal after an investigation found “compromised peer review or 3rd party involvement,” according to a company spokesperson.   The retractions, all from the International Journal of Electrical Engineering & Education, stem from an investigation that led Sage to retract 122 papers – as well as fire … Continue reading Sage retracts more than 200 papers from journal for compromised peer review

Guest post: A look behind the scenes of bulk retractions from Sage

When I began my graduate work almost 15 years ago, retractions of papers in academic journals were rare, reserved mainly for clear misconduct or serious errors. Today, rarity has given way to routine, with retractions coming more often and increasingly in bulk.  Sage is not immune to large-scale retractions, nor are we passive observers of … Continue reading Guest post: A look behind the scenes of bulk retractions from Sage

Paper that helped form basis of pricy research tool retracted

Nearly four years after a critic pointed out flaws in a paper about a controversial research tool involved in nearly 20 retractions, the owner of that instrument has lost the article after he failed to overcome the editors’ concerns about the work.  The owner is Donald Morisky, of the University of California, Los Angeles, whose … Continue reading Paper that helped form basis of pricy research tool retracted

Lawyers can foreclose on cancer researcher’s house for unpaid defamation suit bills, says judge

A law firm that holds a mortgage on the house of Carlo Croce, a cancer researcher at The Ohio State University, may foreclose on the property, a judge has ruled.  Croce hired James E. Arnold and Associates to represent him in a libel case against the New York Times and a defamation case against David … Continue reading Lawyers can foreclose on cancer researcher’s house for unpaid defamation suit bills, says judge

Sage retracting three dozen articles for ‘compromised’ peer review

Sage Publishing is retracting 37 articles from an engineering journal after finding “indicators of third party involvement” in the peer review process.  The publisher’s investigation continues, and more papers may be retracted, a spokesperson for the company told Retraction Watch.  A single retraction notice lists the links of the 37 papers to be retracted from … Continue reading Sage retracting three dozen articles for ‘compromised’ peer review

Journal pulls paper from Ethiopia for unlicensed use of questionnaire

A public-health journal has retracted a study from Ethiopia that made unlicensed use of a questionnaire developed by a U.S. researcher known to aggressively protect his intellectual property.  This time, he didn’t have to: The journal’s publisher flagged the copyright infringement itself, Renee Hoch, managing editor at PLOS Publication Ethics, told Retraction Watch:

How fishy email addresses tipped off a sleuth to a paper mill

Anna Abalkina noticed something odd about a psychology paper on the “modern problems of youth extremism”: The corresponding author was affiliated with a university in Russia, but his email address had a domain name from India.  The unusual domain name was part of a pattern Abalkina, of the Freie Universität Berlin, noticed in hundreds of … Continue reading How fishy email addresses tipped off a sleuth to a paper mill