Image manipulation forces retraction of hepatitis C paper

A group of researchers from Egypt has lost their 2013 article on hepatitis C in the Journal of Immunoassay and Immunochemistry for fudging their figures. The article was titled “In vitro neutralization of HCV by goat antibodies against peptides encompassing regions downstream of HVR-1 of E2 glycoprotein.” According to the abstract:

Weekend reads: A scientific impostor, Retraction Watch comments lead to retractions

Here at Retraction Watch, the week featured the revelations of the peer reviews of an early version of the STAP stem cell paper, and an announcement about a new partnership. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Weekend reads: Peer review abuse, a journal that will print anything for $1,200, PubPeer faces legal threats

Another busy week at Retraction Watch. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Authors retract paper “confirming” that narcolepsy is an autoimmune disease

A group of researchers at Stanford and elsewhere is retracting a 2013 paper that another scientist told Nature was “one of the biggest things to happen in the narcolepsy field for some time.” The Science Translational Medicine paper caused a buzz because it claimed to show that narcolepsy was an autoimmune disease. Here’s the notice:

“Lack of experience and understanding” forces duplication retractions of liver cancer paper

A group of researchers in China has lost their paper on liver cancer after the first author admitted to duplication, also known, inelegantly, as self-plagiarism. The paper, “Glycyrrhetinic acid-modified chitosan nanoparticles enhanced the effect of 5-fluorouracil in murine liver cancer model via regulatory T-cells,” appeared in the July 2013 issue of the Journal of Drug … Continue reading “Lack of experience and understanding” forces duplication retractions of liver cancer paper

Publishing gadfly demands journal editor’s resignation, then has “fairly incomprehensible” paper rejected

A scientific publishing gadfly who was banned earlier this year from an Elsevier journal for “personal attacks and threats” has had a paper rejected by a Springer journal after he called for the editor’s resignation because of alleged incompetence. As detailed in a comment left at Retraction Watch, Jaime A. Teixeira da Silva submitted a … Continue reading Publishing gadfly demands journal editor’s resignation, then has “fairly incomprehensible” paper rejected

“Crack Down on Scientific Fraudsters” — our op-ed in today’s New York Times

As Retraction Watch readers know, it’s very rare for a scientist to face criminal charges for fraud, and it’s also very rare for the National Institutes of Health to recoup grants found to have involved misconduct. Both have happened in the case of Dong-Pyou Han, the former Iowa State University researcher who spiked rabbit blood … Continue reading “Crack Down on Scientific Fraudsters” — our op-ed in today’s New York Times

SAGE Publications busts “peer review and citation ring,” 60 papers retracted

This one deserves a “wow.” SAGE Publishers is retracting 60 articles from the Journal of Vibration and Control after an investigation revealed a “peer review and citation ring” involving a professor in Taiwan. [Please see an update on this post.] Here’s the beginning of a statement from SAGE:

Weekend reads: Academics go to court, hijacked journals

Another busy week at Retraction Watch, with Ivan in Seoul speaking on research integrity at the Korean Medical Association conference. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Recombinant protein paper retracted for recombining others’ work

The Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology — now BioMed Research International — has retracted a 2012 paper by a group from China who seem really to have admired a related 2007 article by a team from the Scripps Research Institute — and evidently other work, as well. Here’s the abstract of the now-retracted paper, titled … Continue reading Recombinant protein paper retracted for recombining others’ work