Hyung-In Moon, the South Korean plant compound researcher who came up with fake email addresses so that he could do his own peer review, has retracted twenty more papers, all in Immunopharmacology and Immunotoxicology, an Informa Healthcare title. Here are the papers:
Note to authors: If a journal asks you to suggest reviewers for your submitted manuscript, don’t thank them by faking the reviewer’s emails. You might just get caught. That’s what happened recently at Experimental Parasitology, according to the retraction notice for “Entamoeba histolytica: Cloning, expression and evaluation of the efficacy of a recombinant amebiasis cysteine … Continue reading Elsevier parasitology journal retracts paper after finding author made up peer reviewer email addresses
Would you pay $169 for an introductory ebook on machine learning with citations that appear to be made up? If not, you might want to pass on purchasing Mastering Machine Learning: From Basics to Advanced, published by Springer Nature in April. Based on a tip from a reader, we checked 18 of the 46 citations … Continue reading Springer Nature book on machine learning is full of made-up citations
A journal has retracted 16 papers after a whistleblower flagged it for “irregularities” in peer review, among other concerns. The Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, a Springer Nature title, published the papers between 2021 and 2024. The articles covered research ranging from studies of the work of Haruki Murakami and Kazakh literature to English reading fluency … Continue reading Springer Nature psycholinguistics journal retracts over a dozen articles for authorship, peer review issues
Brown University physician-scientist Wafik El-Deiry has been a longtime critic of the post-publication forum PubPeer, where 75 of his papers have been flagged. For example, in an April post on X, formerly Twitter, he stated, “It is not good that PubPeer has been weaponized and has become tyrannical.” In July 2024, he referred to the … Continue reading Apparent NCI director candidate wants ‘open, respectful’ post-publication peer review while promoting anonymous site that calls sleuths a ‘mob’
“Gay Advocates Can Shift Same-Sex Marriage Views,” read the New York Times headline. “Doorstep visits change attitudes on gay marriage,” declared the Los Angeles Times. “Cure Homophobia With This One Weird Trick!” Slate spouted. Driving those headlines was a December 2014 study in Science, by Michael J. LaCour, then a Ph.D. student at the University … Continue reading 10 years after the downfall of a same-sex marriage canvassing study, tenure, some better practices — and an engagement
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
Elsevier has removed a journal from its Scopus database after Retraction Watch inquired about its review process for the journal, whose editorial board lists fake names and digital fingerprint shows other red flags. Scientific sleuth Anna Abalkina uncovered several issues with Science of Law, which she details in a post published today. Besides editors and … Continue reading Elsevier removes journal from Scopus after Retraction Watch inquiry
A correction to a clinical trial on a potential treatment for COVID-19 has taken more than a year — and counting — to get published. In the meantime, the article remains marked with an expression of concern that appeared in February 2024. The Lancet Regional Health–Americas published the study, a randomized clinical trial of the … Continue reading Why has it taken more than a year to correct a COVID-19 paper?
A paper that made the rounds last year for its blatantly “irrelevant” citations has now been retracted. Elsevier’s International Journal of Hydrogen Energy published “Origin of the distinct site occupations of H atom in hcp Ti and Zr/Hf” in November 2024. Paragraph seven of the introduction consists of a single sentence: “As strongly requested by … Continue reading A ‘joke’: Paper with ‘completely irrelevant’ citations retracted