Search Results for: fraud

Plague of anomalies in conference proceedings hint at ‘systemic issues’

Hundreds of conference papers published by the U.S.-based Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) show signs of plagiarism, citation fraud and other types of scientific misconduct, according to data sleuths. “I am concerned that the issue with these particular conferences is widespread enough such that it indicates systemic issues with their peer review systems,” … Continue reading Plague of anomalies in conference proceedings hint at ‘systemic issues’

Scientist with six retractions wins challenge of firing, funding ban

Ten years after a neuroscientist was fired from his job at a Veterans Administration Medical Center, he has won a challenge of the decision. Wayne State University, where the researcher, Christian Kreipke, was studying traumatic brain injury, fired him in February 2012 following a research misconduct investigation that found he had faked data. At the … Continue reading Scientist with six retractions wins challenge of firing, funding ban

Weekend reads: A Nobel winner’s seventh retraction; Stanford’s president fights back; what should go into a retraction notice

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? The week at Retraction Watch featured: Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to more than 300. There are now 40,000 retractions in our database — which powers retraction alerts in EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains 200 titles. And have you … Continue reading Weekend reads: A Nobel winner’s seventh retraction; Stanford’s president fights back; what should go into a retraction notice

Three journals’ web domains expired. Then major indexes pointed to hijacked versions

Have you heard about hijacked journals, which take over legitimate publications’ titles, ISSNs, and other metadata without their permission? We recently launched the Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker, and will be publishing regular posts like this one to tell the stories of some of those cases.  When web domains of legitimate journals expire, fraudulent publishers have an opening … Continue reading Three journals’ web domains expired. Then major indexes pointed to hijacked versions

Researcher loses PhD after admitting to fudging images

A university in Japan has revoked the doctoral degree of a former student found to have manipulated images and graphs in a dissertation and two published papers. “Although our university has been working to raise awareness of research ethics in order to prevent research misconduct, it is extremely regrettable that such a situation has occurred,” … Continue reading Researcher loses PhD after admitting to fudging images

Guest post: When whistleblowers need lawyers

In my prior career as an investigative science journalist and now as a whistleblower lawyer, I’ve seen institutions react to allegations of scientific fraud in two ways.  The first could be called “Investigate and Disclose.” This strategy was exemplified by Bell Laboratories’ 2002 investigation of allegations that Jan Hendrik Schön, a member of the technical … Continue reading Guest post: When whistleblowers need lawyers

‘Compromised’ survey data leads to article retraction and university investigation

An article based on results from an online survey has been retracted for data issues, and an Australian university is investigating what happened. The article, “International nursing students’ perceptions and experiences of transition to the nursing workforce – A cross-sectional survey,” became available online on Jan. 29, 2022. Published in the journal Nurse Education in … Continue reading ‘Compromised’ survey data leads to article retraction and university investigation

Retractions should not take longer than two months, says UK Parliament committee

A new report from a UK Parliament committee calls for scientific publishers to correct and retract papers much quicker than they currently do, for the sake of research integrity and reproducibility.  The Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee of the House of Commons issued its report today, following an inquiry to which Retraction Watch and … Continue reading Retractions should not take longer than two months, says UK Parliament committee

Nature editors retract influential cancer paper with “unreliable” data 

Editors at Nature have retracted a 2015 paper on breast cancer metastases citing trouble with the data in the supplementary materials.  The paper, “The hypoxic cancer secretome induces pre-metastatic bone lesions through lysyl oxidase,” was first published in May 2015 and has been cited 352 times, according to Clarivate’s Web of Science.  This marks the … Continue reading Nature editors retract influential cancer paper with “unreliable” data 

US-backed researchers in Colombia accused of experimenting on animals, humans without approval

On January 16, inspectors from an environmental agency in western Colombia made some troubling findings. At a U.S.-funded facility supposed to be doing cutting-edge malaria research, researchers were keeping dozens of monkeys in dirty cages in poorly ventilated, over-lit enclosures. Several animals were smeared with feces. Some looked sick, and one was missing an eye. … Continue reading US-backed researchers in Colombia accused of experimenting on animals, humans without approval