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Meet the postdoc who says he’s been trying to retract his own paper since 2016

In August 2015, bioengineers gathered in Milan, Italy, for the 37th annual conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. About 2,000 papers were accepted and published online for the conference. But an author of one of those articles says he’s been trying to retract it since 2016. As a PhD student at … Continue reading Meet the postdoc who says he’s been trying to retract his own paper since 2016

Leading evidence-based group blames pandemic for 9-month delay pulling flawed cancer review

Last February, Richard Pollock was reading a review in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews — a prominent resource for evidence-based medicine —  when he spotted an error.  In the first figure, which compared the effectiveness of two different treatments for the most common form of liver cancer, a label was switched. The error made … Continue reading Leading evidence-based group blames pandemic for 9-month delay pulling flawed cancer review

Engineering professor up to nine retractions for image problems

An engineering researcher is up to nine retractions for image issues, having lost eight papers in the last month. Yashvir Singh, of India’s Graphic Era University — ironically enough, given the reasons for the retractions —  is the first author on seven of the papers, and second author on the eighth, which appeared between 2016 … Continue reading Engineering professor up to nine retractions for image problems

Okinawa researcher suspended for faking data denies committing misconduct

Ye Zhang, who as we reported yesterday is serving a six-month suspension from her post at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), in Japan, says she did not commit misconduct, as the school contends.  In response to a query from Retraction Watch, Zhang, a materials scientist, said she did not agree with … Continue reading Okinawa researcher suspended for faking data denies committing misconduct

Okinawa university suspends researcher for six months following findings of plagiarism and faked data

A materials scientist in Japan was found guilty of plagiarism and fabrication of data in a May 2019 paper, resulting in a six-month suspension, according to her institution.  Ye Zhang, of the Bioinspired Soft Matter Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), was the senior author of “Enzyme-mediated dual-targeted-assembly realizes … Continue reading Okinawa university suspends researcher for six months following findings of plagiarism and faked data

Researcher to overtake Diederik Stapel on the Retraction Watch Leaderboard, with 61

A construction researcher is watching his publishing edifice crumble, as more upcoming retractions of his papers will bring his total to 61.  Ali Nazari is believed to be a member of a ring of authors whom a whistleblower has claimed are churning out unreliable research — hundreds of papers, according to the sleuth, who goes … Continue reading Researcher to overtake Diederik Stapel on the Retraction Watch Leaderboard, with 61

What is a figure about budgies doing in four different plant papers?

As Antonella Longo was peer-reviewing a study for the journal Plant and Soil, she became “alarmed by one figure.” The figure’s title — ”Level2 GO terms of Melopsittacus_undulates” — seemed to be a misspelled reference to a bird species called Melopsittacus undulatus.  More commonly known as a budgie or parakeet, undulatus is a vibrantly colored … Continue reading What is a figure about budgies doing in four different plant papers?

The mill and the loss: Journal up to 39 retractions, just under half linked to paper mills

We’re rounding out the week with a third post about paper mills: A Taylor & Francis journal is up to 39 retractions, 18 of which appear to have been the work of at least one such operation. Last March, The publication, “Artificial Cells, Nanomedicine, and Biotechnology,” issued an expression of concern for 13 of the … Continue reading The mill and the loss: Journal up to 39 retractions, just under half linked to paper mills

Why one biologist says it’s not too late to retract the “arsenic life” paper

An anniversary has prompted this reconsideration of the revolution in biochemistry that wasn’t: the “arsenic bacteria.” Just over 10 years have passed since an infamous Dec. 2, 2010, NASA press conference, which promised the revelation of “an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life.”  Of course, nothing of the kind … Continue reading Why one biologist says it’s not too late to retract the “arsenic life” paper

Publisher retracting 68 articles suspected of being paper mill products

It appears to be Paper Mill Sweeps Week here at Retraction Watch.  On Tuesday, we reported on an editor who believes one such operation was responsible for the withdrawals of at least two articles in her journal.  Now, the Royal Society of Chemistry is retracting 68 articles, across three of its titles, after an investigation … Continue reading Publisher retracting 68 articles suspected of being paper mill products