“Failure is an essential part of science:” A Q&A with the author of a new book on reproducibility

Reproducibility is everywhere recently, from the pages of scientific journals to the halls of the National Academy of Sciences, and today it lands in bookstores across the U.S. Longtime NPR correspondent Richard Harris has written Rigor Mortis (Basic Books), which is published today. (Full disclosure: I blurbed the book, writing that “Harris deftly weaves gripping tales … Continue reading “Failure is an essential part of science:” A Q&A with the author of a new book on reproducibility

Authors retract paper linking nuclear power to slow action on climate change

Do pro-nuclear energy countries act more slowly to curb the effects of climate change? That’s what a paper published in July in the journal Climate Policy claimed. But the hotly debated study was retracted last week after the authors came to understand that it included serious errors. An August 22 press release about the original … Continue reading Authors retract paper linking nuclear power to slow action on climate change

Cancer researcher logs 5th retraction

A cancer researcher has added a fifth retraction to his name — but the notice doesn’t mention any problems with the paper itself.  Rather, the Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia decided to retract the paper because it referenced other papers that had been retracted as a result of data manipulation. The notice doesn’t … Continue reading Cancer researcher logs 5th retraction

Weekend reads: Publication pollution, irreproducible research crisis, and broken funding models

The week at Retraction Watch featured an adventure in irony as a paper on plagiarism was retracted for…plagiarism, as well as another retraction for high-profile cancer research Robert Weinberg. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

So-kalled research: French sociology journal retracts hoax article

The world, it seems, cannot get enough of Sokal-type hoaxes. A French journal, Sociétés, has retracted an article allegedly penned by one Jean-Marc Tremblay but actually written by two sociologists, Manuel Quinon and Arnaud Saint-Martin, who spoofed the work of the journal’s editor, Michel Maffesoli. As the Crooked Timber blog explains, the article, “Automobilités postmodernes: … Continue reading So-kalled research: French sociology journal retracts hoax article

A Cancer Cell mega-correction for highly cited researcher who retracted paper earlier this year

MIT’s Robert Weinberg, a leading cancer researcher who retracted a Cancer Cell paper earlier this year for “inappropriate presentation” of figures, has corrected a different paper in the same journal. Here’s the correction for “Species- and Cell Type-Specific Requirements for Cellular Transformation:” We were apprised recently of errors made in the assembly of Figures 2B, … Continue reading A Cancer Cell mega-correction for highly cited researcher who retracted paper earlier this year

Leading cancer researcher retracts 2003 paper for “inappropriate presentation”

One of the world’s leading cancer researchers, MIT’s Robert Weinberg, has retracted a decade-old paper after finding out it contained errors. Here’s the notice for “Ras Modulates Myc Activity to Repress Thrombospondin-1 Expression and Increase Tumor Angiogenesis,” a paper originally published in Cancer Cell in 2003: