Weekend reads: The year’s top retractions; quoting Trump leads to a firing; life without Elsevier journals

This week at Retraction Watch featured revelations about a frequent co-author of the world’s retraction record holder, and a prison term for fraud. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

U.S. gov’t physicist sentenced to 18 months in prison for fraud

A physicist formerly based at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for faking data.  According to the United States Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of California, after receiving millions in government funding between 2008 and 2012, Sean Darin Kinion submitted faked data and reports to … Continue reading U.S. gov’t physicist sentenced to 18 months in prison for fraud

Weekend reads: Paying peer reviewers; the embargo debate; crushed by data

This week at Retraction Watch featured some big numbers: How a request to correct a single paper turned into 19 retractions, and 18 tips for giving horrible presentations. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Weekend reads: Arguments for abandoning “statistically significant,” boorish behavior, and useless clinical trials

The week at Retraction Watch featured developments in the retraction of a paper claiming the dangers of GMOs, and claims of censorship by a Nature journal. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

UK doctor banned from practice after fabricating data in grant applications

A prominent cancer researcher in England has been banned from practicing medicine and has lost his funding from a UK charity after being found to have fabricated data in grant applications. The moves against the researcher, Thorsten Hagemann, come after investigations by the General Medical Council, akin to a U.S. state medical board, and Hagemann’s former … Continue reading UK doctor banned from practice after fabricating data in grant applications

Vast majority of Americans want to criminalize data fraud, says new study

As Retraction Watch readers know, criminal sanctions for research fraud are extremely rare. There have been just a handful of cases — Dong-Pyou Han, Eric Poehlman, and Scott Reuben, to name several — that have led to prison sentences. According to a new study, however, the rarity of such cases is out of sync with … Continue reading Vast majority of Americans want to criminalize data fraud, says new study

Should fraudsters be criminally prosecuted?

After an AIDS vaccine researcher was sentenced to five years in prison for spiking samples, our co-founders Ivan Oransky and Adam Marcus raised an important question: Should we criminally prosecute researchers who commit misconduct? (So has Richard Smith.) In last fall’s special issue of the Journal of Information Ethics, Michael Hadjiargyrou at New York Institute … Continue reading Should fraudsters be criminally prosecuted?

Weekend reads: Naughty journals; whistleblowers’ frustration; new misconduct definition?

The week at Retraction Watch featured revelations of fraud in more than $100 million in government research, and swift findings in a much-discussed case. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Weekend reads: How to prove (and find) false claims; confessions of a wasteful scientist

This week at Retraction Watch featured what may be a record for plagiarism, a paper retracted because the device researchers claimed to use hadn’t arrive in the institution yet, and a technical glitch, which meant you may have missed some of our posts. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Weekend reads: Improper influence by NFL; dissertations for sale; how common is failure to reproduce?

The week at Retraction Watch featured controversy over an economics paper, and a report of a researcher who faked more than 70 experiments. Here’s what was happening elsewhere: