Weekend reads: “Plagiarism is for losers;” the retraction war; a step back for science in 2014
Welcome to our last Weekend Reads of 2014. This week featured our second annual Top 10 Retractions list. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:
Search Results for: nutrition
“Undeclared competing interest” sinks fish oil takedown by author fined for deceptive claims
The Journal of Lipids has retracted an aggressively negative review article called “Why Fish Oil Fails,” written by one Brian S. Peskin, whose bogus health claims have landed him in plenty of hot water in the past. Here’s the notice:
Author of alcohol paper retracted for plagiarism defends copy-and-paste strategy
The authors of a paper retracted for plagiarism of a popular website have decided not to take the charges — which they don’t contest — lying down. Here’s the notice for “Alcohol consumption and hormonal alterations related to muscle hypertrophy: a review,” which appeared in Nutrition & Metabolism, a BioMed Central title:
Weekend reads: Nature’s torrent of retractions, peer review’s Golden Rule
Another busy week at Retraction Watch. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:
Paper on liver failure in babies withdrawn for lab mix-up
A paper on liver failure in infants has been retracted due to a lab error, though the author contends that the paper still holds a valuable message for pediatricians — one that could save lives. To get to that, though, we had to make it through what turns out to be an unnecessarily vague retraction … Continue reading Paper on liver failure in babies withdrawn for lab mix-up
Yogurt to be kidding me: Five articles plagiarized in one retracted paper
After typing up 96 citations, researchers from the National Institute for Digestive Diseases, I.R.C.C.S. “S. de Bellis,” in Bari, Italy, apparently ran out of steam for the last five, earning themselves a retraction for plagiarism in a literature review of the effects of probiotics on intestinal cancer. Here’s the notice for “Intestinal Microbiota, Probiotics and … Continue reading Yogurt to be kidding me: Five articles plagiarized in one retracted paper
Rice researcher in ethics scrape threatens journal with lawsuit over coming retraction
Guangwen Tang, a rice researcher at Tufts University, landed in hot water in 2012 after her team was accused of feeding Chinese children genetically modified Golden Rice without having obtained informed consent from the parents. Now, she’s suing both Tufts and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which reportedly is retracting a paper, “ß-carotene in Golden Rice is as good … Continue reading Rice researcher in ethics scrape threatens journal with lawsuit over coming retraction
Lactobacillus intolerance: Bacterium mixup forces retraction
The British Journal of Nutrition has retracted a 2013 paper by a group of researchers from Taiwan after learning that the authors had studied the wrong strain of microbe. The article was titled “Oral Lactobacillus reuteri GMN-32 treatment reduces blood glucose concentrations and promotes cardiac function in rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetes mellitus.” According to the abstract:
March Madness? Harvard profs take shots at controversial studies, request retractions
In the wake of Harvard’s gritty performance in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament — they were eliminated Saturday — a pair of faculty members at the Ivy League institution are calling foul on two controversial journal articles that have already been corrected. Walter Willett, an oft-quoted Harvard nutrition expert, is calling for the retraction of … Continue reading March Madness? Harvard profs take shots at controversial studies, request retractions
Sex worker paper falls in data dispute
The authors of a 2011 paper on sex workers in India have lost the article in a dispute over the provenance of the data. The article, “Health of Home-Based Sex Workers and their Children in Rural Andhra Pradesh, India,” appeared in Asian Population Studies and was written by Monique M. Hennink and Solveig A. Cunningham, … Continue reading Sex worker paper falls in data dispute