‘Stop playing with my life,’ researcher about to be up to 10 retractions asks sleuth

A researcher who used similar, related, or identical research to publish over 30 studies in various academic journals will have four more of those papers retracted, bringing his total to ten retractions, Retraction Watch has learned. Hossein Mohammadhosseini was formerly listed as a researcher at the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Technology, … Continue reading ‘Stop playing with my life,’ researcher about to be up to 10 retractions asks sleuth

Medical school dean up to five retractions

A kidney research group led by a medical school dean has accumulated five retractions.  All five came within the last year, after commenters on PubPeer pointed out image similarities.  Joseph I. Shapiro, vice president and dean of the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, is an author on … Continue reading Medical school dean up to five retractions

Former Weill Cornell cancer researcher up to 20 retractions; investigation’s findings are with Feds

The journal Cancer Prevention Research has retracted nine papers at once from a group of cancer researchers led by Andrew Dannenberg, formerly of Weill Cornell Medicine.  The bundle of retractions brings Dannenberg’s total to 20, according to our database, nearly doubling the 11 he had previously. Kotha Subbaramaiah, also formerly of Weill Cornell Medicine, is … Continue reading Former Weill Cornell cancer researcher up to 20 retractions; investigation’s findings are with Feds

Often, retractions take years. This one took three days.

“The retraction that took years” is a common enough refrain on Retraction Watch that it might as be its own genre. Here’s one that didn’t. A journal wasted no time pouncing on a suspect paper, retracting the 2016 article just three days after a commenter flagged concerns about the images in the work on PubPeer.  … Continue reading Often, retractions take years. This one took three days.

Weekend reads: ‘Death threats, ghost researchers and sock puppets’; high levels of duplication in Russian science; DNA barcoding fraud?

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: Paper used to support claims that ivermectin reduces COVID-19 hospitalizations is withdrawn by preprint server University president in Japan self-plagiarized and will forfeit some pay French ocean institute goes public about authors who forged … Continue reading Weekend reads: ‘Death threats, ghost researchers and sock puppets’; high levels of duplication in Russian science; DNA barcoding fraud?

‘[T]he authors plagiarised a large amount of text, but…retractions should not be used as a tool to punish authors’

In September 2018, I wrote to the managing editor of FEBS Letters with my concerns about the extensive textual overlap between a 2011 article by Sonia A. Melo and Manel Esteller and other articles, including some that were not cited, such as a 2009 article in the Annual Review of Pathology by Yong Sun Lee … Continue reading ‘[T]he authors plagiarised a large amount of text, but…retractions should not be used as a tool to punish authors’

‘Why did this take over five years?’ Reflecting on two new retractions

In September 2015, after a lengthy investigation, the Committee on Scientific Integrity (CSI) of the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) advised the LUMC Board of Directors to ask for retraction of two publications because of major data manipulation in images. The case involved Maria Fousteri, who by then had left LUMC. In the Netherlands it … Continue reading ‘Why did this take over five years?’ Reflecting on two new retractions

Seven barred from research after plagiarism, duplications in eleven papers

A retired Nepali professor and six others have been barred from research after plagiarism and duplicated images were found in 11 of their papers. Parashuram Mishra, a retired crystallographer at Tribhuvan University, in Nepal, is the lead author on all the studies. Most of the papers contain image duplications; the same figures were reused across … Continue reading Seven barred from research after plagiarism, duplications in eleven papers

‘Conference organizers have ignored this:’ How common is plagiarism and duplication in abstracts?

Harold “Skip” Garner has worn many hats over the course of his career, including plasma physicist, biologist, and administrator. One of his interests is plagiarism and duplication the scientific literature, and he and colleagues developed a tool called eTBLAST that compares text passages to what has already been published to flag potential overlap. A new … Continue reading ‘Conference organizers have ignored this:’ How common is plagiarism and duplication in abstracts?

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