Weekend reads: A whistleblower finds possible misconduct — again; embracing failure; radical transparency for journals

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 268. There are more than 36,000 retractions in our database — which powers retraction alerts in EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most … Continue reading Weekend reads: A whistleblower finds possible misconduct — again; embracing failure; radical transparency for journals

Weekend reads, double edition: Science’s ‘nasty Photoshopping problem’; Dr. Oz’s publication ban; image manipulation detection software

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. This week, it’s a special double edition of Weekend Reads, thanks to a site outage that meant we couldn’t post last Saturday. The last two weeks at Retraction Watch featured: Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 267. … Continue reading Weekend reads, double edition: Science’s ‘nasty Photoshopping problem’; Dr. Oz’s publication ban; image manipulation detection software

Weekend reads: A journal ends accept/reject in peer review; more of a Nobelist’s work comes under scrutiny; CNRS director says what he thinks of sleuths

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: Paper co-authored by Australian journalist Maryanne Demasi to be marked with expression of concern Catch and kill: What it’s like to try to get a NEJM paper corrected Paper co-authored by sleuth Elisabeth Bik marked … Continue reading Weekend reads: A journal ends accept/reject in peer review; more of a Nobelist’s work comes under scrutiny; CNRS director says what he thinks of sleuths

In 1987, the NIH found a paper contained fake data. It was just retracted.

Ronald Reagan was president and James Wyngaarden was director of the National Institutes of Health when a division of the agency found 10 papers describing trials of psychiatric drugs it had funded had fake data or other serious issues.  Thirty-five years later, one of those articles has finally been retracted.  A 1987 report by the … Continue reading In 1987, the NIH found a paper contained fake data. It was just retracted.

Can you explain what these 1,500 papers are doing in this journal?

The Internet of Things. Computer science. Botany. COVID-19. All worthwhile subjects, to be sure. But what do they have to do with materials science? That’s what James Heathers, who will be familiar to readers of Retraction Watch as a “data thug,” found himself wondering after he spent a weekend looking into articles published by Materials Today: … Continue reading Can you explain what these 1,500 papers are doing in this journal?

Dental school dean up to five retractions for cancer research papers

A dental school dean with a history of publishing cancer research papers is up to five retractions.  Russell Taichman, the dean of the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s school of dentistry, lost two papers in Cancer Research earlier this month, after losing three others since 2020. Most of the retractions came after PubPeer comments about … Continue reading Dental school dean up to five retractions for cancer research papers

How journal editors kept questionable data about women’s health out of the literature years before retractions

In July of 2017, Mohamed Rezk, of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Menoufia University in Egypt, submitted a manuscript to the journal Anesthesia with a colleague.  The manuscript, “Analgesic and antiemetic effect of Intraperitoneal magnesium sulfate in laparoscopic salpingectomy: a randomized controlled trial,” caught the attention of John Carlisle, an editor at the … Continue reading How journal editors kept questionable data about women’s health out of the literature years before retractions

Exclusive: NIH researcher resigned amid retractions, including Nature paper

A tenure-track investigator at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), a division of the National Institutes of Health, resigned in March, as questions mounted about her work, Retraction Watch has learned.  Jennifer Martinez has retracted at least two papers, including a 2016 Nature paper with the chair of the immunology department at St. … Continue reading Exclusive: NIH researcher resigned amid retractions, including Nature paper

Weekend reads: A tale of deception; hydroxychloroquine in Australia; AI and ML to fix your papers — or write them

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: An editor on why he ignores anonymous whistleblowers – and why authors are free to publish ‘bullshit and fiction’ In four years, a psychosocial counselor co-authored seven papers on disparate medical topics. How? When an … Continue reading Weekend reads: A tale of deception; hydroxychloroquine in Australia; AI and ML to fix your papers — or write them

Weekend reads: ‘The Problem of Irreproducible Bioscience Research;’ ‘How to Stop the Unknowing Citation of Retracted Papers;’ data scandal leads to stock drop

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: Exclusive: Cancer researcher sues med school for retaliation after research misconduct finding Editors-in-chief of aging journal resign en masse after ‘impasse with the Anatomical Society and Wiley’ Penn maintains wall of silence over now-retired prof as retractions … Continue reading Weekend reads: ‘The Problem of Irreproducible Bioscience Research;’ ‘How to Stop the Unknowing Citation of Retracted Papers;’ data scandal leads to stock drop