Steven Eaton, a UK scientist who cooked experiments while at the U.S.-based contract research outfit Aptuit, has been given a three-month prison term, making him the first person to serve time under a 1999 British law called the Good Laboratory Practice Regulations, according to the BBC. As the BBC reported:
As we — and others — have written, retracted articles don’t necessarily creep off to some little island somewhere never to be heard from again. After all, the electronic versions of about a third of retracted papers aren’t marked as retracted. Sometimes, like Napoleon, those papers return from exile to wreak havoc: They get cited … Continue reading After retracted study’s cited, editors ask, “time to add scientific integrity to the downside of print on paper?”
A group of researchers in China have retracted a 2011 article in Acta Pharmacologica Sinica, the official journal of the Chinese Pharmacological Society, acknowledging that they lifted text and results from a previously published paper from other researchers. The paper was titled “Lipid metabolism disturbances and AMPK activation in prolonged propofol-sedated rabbits under mechanical ventilation.” … Continue reading Expressions of regret: group retracts sedation paper for stolen words, data
The Dutch media are reporting that Diederik Stapel, the Tilburg University social psychologist who fabricated data in dozens of studies, is facing a criminal probe for his misuse of some 2.2 million euros (roughly $2.8 million U.S.) in government grant funding. A Retraction Watch commenter tipped us off this morning that the newspaper NRC Handelsblad … Continue reading Diederik Stapel faces criminal inquiry for misuse of funds
Japanese investigators have concluded that Yoshitaka Fujii, an expert in postoperative nausea and vomiting whose findings drew scrutiny in 2000 but who continued to publish prolifically for a decade after, fabricated his results in at least 172 published studies. That number nearly doubles that of the current unofficial retraction record holder, Joachim Boldt. An inquiry … Continue reading Does anesthesiology have a problem? Final version of report suggests Fujii will take retraction record, with 172
We have learned that a widely published Japanese anesthesiologist is under investigation by his university over concerns that he engaged in repeated fraud for decades that has tainted roughly 180 articles—many of which may be retracted as a result. In a related move, the journal Clinical Therapeutics is retracting papers by the researcher, Yoshitaka Fujii, most … Continue reading Major fraud probe of Japanese anesthesiologist Yoshitaka Fujii may challenge retraction record
Flawed research that leads to retractions is a problem for editors, publishers and the scientific community. But what about patients? In a recent issue of the Journal of Medical Ethics, R. Grant Steen asks the question — and answers it in the affirmative. We’ve heard from Steen before; he has written two recent papers on … Continue reading No academic matter: Study links retractions to patient harm
As readers of this blog have no doubt sensed by now, the number of retractions per year seems to be on the rise. We feel that intuitively as we uncover more and more of them, but there are also data to suggest this is true. As if to demonstrate that, we’ve been trying to find … Continue reading Is scientific fraud on the rise?
If you’re a savvy Retraction Watch reader — or if you’ve paid any attention at all to the news in the last 18 hours — you will have heard by now that the BMJ has called Andrew Wakefield’s work on autism and the MMR vaccine a “hoax.” The February 2010 retraction of the original Wakefield … Continue reading Some quick thoughts and links on Andrew Wakefield, the BMJ, autism, vaccines, and fraud
Self-plagiarism alert: A very similar version of this post is being published online in Anesthesiology News, where one of us (AM) is managing editor. If a plagiarist plagiarizes from an author who herself has plagiarized, do we call it a wash and go for a beer? That scenario is precisely what Steven L. Shafer found … Continue reading Plagiarists plagiarized: A daisy chain of retractions at Anesthesia & Analgesia