It is often said that science is self-correcting, but it is usually more accurate to add “in the long run” to that statement. Take, for example, this retraction of a 10-year-old paper in Entropy that had been questioned since 2005. Here’s the notice for “Statistical Convergent Topological Sequence Entropy Maps of the Circle:” The editors … Continue reading Nine-year-old plagiarism allegation leads to retraction of math paper
Yet another busy week at Retraction Watch, with one of us taking part in a symposium on the future of science journalism for a few days. (See if you can find Ivan in this picture.) Here’s what was happening elsewhere on the web in science publishing and related issues:
Nutrition & Metabolism has retracted a 2008 article by a dwindling group of researchers from Pakistan. We’d say it’s the equivalent of punting on first down, expect that’s what the editors probably should have done in the beginning. As it happens, the journal seems to be guilty of delay of game in this case. As … Continue reading And then there were none: Plagiarism forces retraction of metabolism paper with vanishing authors
The journal Bioinformation has retracted a 2009 article by a group of researchers from India. The paper was titled “Targeting pseudoknots in H5N1 hemagglutinin using designed aptamers,” and was written by Priyanka Dhar, Sayak Ganguli and Abhijit Datta, of the Defence Institute of High Altitude Research and the Bioinformatics Centre at Presidency College in Kolkata. Under … Continue reading ‘Pseudoknots’ a pseudopaper, retracted for plagiarism
The Journal of Food Science has retracted a 2012 paper by Chinese scientists, one of whom copped to having made up data in the paper — which also plagiarized from a 2009 article by other researchers — and forging his co-authors’ names on the manuscript. The article, “A Multiplex PCR Assay for the Rapid and … Continue reading 2 for 2: Fraud, plagiarism force retraction of Staph aureus paper
A group of dental researchers from India has lost their 2008 paper on the salubrious effects of coconut water on periodontal health. The article, “Comparison of coconut water, propolis, HBSS, and milk on PDL cell survival,” appeared in the Journal of Endodontics, an Elsevier title. It has been cited 24 times, according to Thomson Scientific’s … Continue reading Dental journal pulls article for “sufficient evidence” of plagiarism
A 2011 book by Lewis Wolpert, one of the world’s leading developmental biologists, has been pulled from shelves for plagiarism. The Guardian reports that the book, You’re Looking Very Well, …has been found…to contain more than 20 passages that have been taken directly from academic papers, websites and Wikipedia with no indication that they were … Continue reading Book by leading biologist Lewis Wolpert withdrawn from sale for plagiarism
As a reporter on the police beat many years ago, one of us (Adam) used to hang out with a press officer whose desk at the station had the following sign: “Uma boca fechado não recolhe nenhum pé.” At least, that’s what it would have been had we been in Rio. In Palmer Park, Maryland, … Continue reading Researcher who called plagiarism “the worst type of fraud” retracts paper for…plagiarism
The Dutch papers are reporting that Peter Nijkamp, one of the leading economists in The Netherlands, has been embroiled in what looks like a self-plagiarism scandal following the cancellation of a thesis defense by one of his graduate students because of plagiarism. We say “what looks like” because it’s tough to figure out what’s alleged … Continue reading Dutch economist Nijkamp embroiled in plagiarism and duplication scandal
A group of researchers in China has lost a paper on the human microbiome in Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology for cannibalizing much of it from previously published work by other scientists. The article, titled “Human gut microbiota: dysbiosis and manipulation,” appeared on Sept. 27, 2012, and was written by a team from the … Continue reading Gut instinct: Intestinal flora paper yanked for plagiarism