Tokyo Women’s Medical University has stripped a researcher of her PhD, following the retraction of a paper — for data duplication — that was based on her thesis. The August 30th announcement notes that a degree was revoked on July 20. The announcement does not name the researcher, but refers to degree number 2881, which … Continue reading Japanese university revokes PhD following a retraction
A lab at the University of Malaya has lost two papers and will have to correct five more — just from one publisher — over poor lab practices. One of the retracted papers paper tested the effects of a plant on liver damage; its notice says the paper contains overlap with another paper from the … Continue reading Publisher retracts two papers, will correct five more for lab with high “level of disorganization”
If you read this space, you probably know the name Brad Bushman. He studies the effects of violent video games on the people who play them. He also has just retracted his third paper, and significantly corrected another. Although Bushman remains a prominent voice in a highly contentious field — prompting numerous media to consult … Continue reading Prominent video game-violence researcher loses another paper to retraction
The similarities between recent papers in two different journals about energy were striking — so striking that a number of people have taken to Twitter and Facebook to let the world know about them. [1415 UTC, August 29, 2018: See update at the end of this post.] One paper, “Systematic investigation of the impact of operation … Continue reading UPDATED: Elsevier retracts a paper on solar cells that appears to plagiarize a Nature journal. But the reason is…odd.
When you think a retraction notice doesn’t tell the whole story, what should you do? For one group of researchers who’ve been closely following how journals handle the work associated with a bone researcher found guilty of misconduct, the actions of one publication were too problematic to let go. So the researchers wrote to the … Continue reading Dear editor: Your retraction notice stinks
Sometimes, corrections are so extensive, they can only be called one thing: Mega-corrections. Recently, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) issued a four-page correction notice to a paper about a compound that appeared to reduce the chances a cancer will recur. The notice describes figure duplication, problems with error bars and figure … Continue reading A 2015 PNAS paper is six pages long. Its correction is four pages long.
In a case that has involved eight years of misconduct allegations, two U.S. Federal agencies, a state university, and multiple lawsuits, a former Wayne State researcher has earned a five-year ban on Federal funding. U.S. Administrative Law Judge Keith W. Sickendick found that Christian Kreipke
When Nature published a paper in 2011 describing a compound extracted from a pepper plant that appeared to kill cancer cells but leave healthy cells unscathed, it got some attention. Of course, the news caught the media’s eye, but also that of other researchers, who have since jumped on the concept, and continued to study … Continue reading Nature cancer paper that raised animal welfare concerns is retracted
Before we present this week’s Weekend Reads, a question: Do you enjoy our weekly roundup? If so, we could really use your help. Would you consider a tax-deductible donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured a critic with more than two dozen retractions; why twenty … Continue reading Weekend reads: The fall of a Crossfit science watchdog; a CDC retraction about suicides; “superb subterfuge” by predatory journals
Yes, you read that headline right. In a new preprint posted to bioRxiv, image sleuths scanned hundreds of papers published over a seven-year period in Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB), published by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). The researchers — Arturo Casadevall of Johns Hopkins University, Elisabeth Bik of uBiome, Ferric Fang of the … Continue reading 35,000 papers may need to be retracted for image doctoring, says new paper