Ovarian transplant update: Authors of 2004 live-birth follow-up letter ask Lancet to retract it

Yesterday, we brought you news of a story in Belgium involving questions about whether a woman who gave birth following an ovarian transplant could have become pregnant without the transplant. The case, which led to a university investigation but no retraction, included allegations of theft and arson. This morning, we were made aware of a … Continue reading Ovarian transplant update: Authors of 2004 live-birth follow-up letter ask Lancet to retract it

Serial plagiarizers banned from dermatology journal forever

Last August, we brought you the news that the Indian Journal of Dermatology had banned a group of Tunisian researchers from publishing in the journal for five years, because they had plagiarized in a 2009 study. Well, the journal’s editors found another case in which the authors have plagiarized, and now they’re banned from the … Continue reading Serial plagiarizers banned from dermatology journal forever

Catching up: Charges against CFS-XMRV researcher Mikovits dropped, ‘gyres’ author Andrulis publishes another paper

A follow-up on two stories we’ve covered here at Retraction Watch: 1. Criminal charges against chronic fatigue syndrome researcher dropped The state of Nevada has dropped criminal charges against Judy Mikovits, the embattled chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) researcher whose paper linking the condition to a virus, XMRV, was retracted last year by Science. As we … Continue reading Catching up: Charges against CFS-XMRV researcher Mikovits dropped, ‘gyres’ author Andrulis publishes another paper

Authors’ public dispute over retraction notice in Cytokine ends in a draw, bruises journal

Cytokine had an interesting retraction notice this year that points up the pitfalls — perhaps necessary, perhaps not — that journals can step in when they give authors the benefit of the doubt. Here’s the story: A doctoral student named Varun Kesherwani was working in the lab of Ajit Sodhi, a U.S.-trained and well-published cell biologist … Continue reading Authors’ public dispute over retraction notice in Cytokine ends in a draw, bruises journal

Neurochemistry journal retracts paper after earlier mega-correction for an author who’s no stranger to errata

The Journal of Neurochemistry has retracted a 2008 paper, “Toll-like receptor 3 contributes to spinal glial activation and tactile allodynia after nerve injury,” it had initially corrected — and how. The correction, which appeared online in August 2010, was extensive:

Another shoe drops as authors retract PNAS chronic fatigue syndrome-virus paper

Just days after the retraction of a paper in Science that had claimed a link between chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and the virus XMRV, the authors of a similar paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) have retracted theirs. The PNAS paper, “Detection of MLV-related virus gene sequences in blood of … Continue reading Another shoe drops as authors retract PNAS chronic fatigue syndrome-virus paper

Duplication earns German HIV researchers a retraction, and a 3-year publishing ban

An HIV researcher in Germany has run afoul of a number of journals because he duplicated his papers in multiple outlets. The funny business by Ulrich Hengge earned him a 3-year ban on publishing in two journals, the Journal of Molecular Medicine (JMM) and Cells, Tissues and Organs (CTO). (We’ve written about publishing bans — which … Continue reading Duplication earns German HIV researchers a retraction, and a 3-year publishing ban

Two murky retractions in Chemosphere for authorship issues

The journal Chemosphere has retracted two papers over authorship concerns. The problem is, we don’t really know what those concerns are. Here’s one notice:

National University of Singapore official who co-authored Melendez papers won’t be part of investigation

The Alirio Melendez case is likely to become quite complicated, as the National University of Singapore (NUS) looks into about 70 papers by the researcher whose work has already been the subject of a retraction and Expression of Concern. One such wrinkle seemed to have already surfaced when a blog called the Gigamole Diaries pointed out last week … Continue reading National University of Singapore official who co-authored Melendez papers won’t be part of investigation

Should journals ban researchers found guilty of fraud from publishing?

Over the past 14 months, we’ve covered several cases of retractions that were punished with publishing bans: Serial image manipulator Naoki Mori was slapped with one by the American Society of Microbiology (ASM) – which publishes Infection and Immunity, The Journal of Clinical Microbiology, and others The ASM banned another author, who plagiarized and did some … Continue reading Should journals ban researchers found guilty of fraud from publishing?