The co-authors of a paper that claimed jade amulets might prevent COVID-19 have tried to distance themselves from the work, in a letter to the co-editor of the journal that published it. In fact, the first author, Moses Bility of the University of Pittsburgh, says of his co-authors:
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: Journals flag concerns in three dozen papers by nutrition researchers … Continue reading Weekend reads: Hydroxychloroquine champion faces ethics charges; a serial plagiarist in philosophy; another author reaches 100 retractions
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: Nanoscience researcher loses four papers for image manipulation, forged authors … Continue reading Weekend reads: ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Scholarly Research Integrity;’ amulet-COVID-19 paper retracted; bad science on voter fraud
Here’s a retraction notice after our own hearts. Brain Research Bulletin, an Elsevier journal, has retracted a 2017 article which duplicated a substantial amount of previously published papers by some of the same authors. But unlike many journals, which merely point out the overlap, BRB explains to readers why the copying matters. The article, “Erythropoietin … Continue reading Why duplicate publications matter: A retraction notice goes above and beyond
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: Paper suggesting vitamin D might protect against COVID-19 earns an … Continue reading Weekend reads: A peer review murder mystery for Halloween; learning from #medbikini; inside the publishing ring that linked COVID-19 and 5G
If you’re looking for more evidence that researchers are flooding the zone with COVID-19 papers that do little to advance the state of the science, we present Psychology, Health & Medicine. The journal, a Taylor & Francis title, in April published “Mental health burden for the public affected by the COVID-19 outbreak in China: Who … Continue reading Researchers publish the same COVID-19 paper three times
A physicist who in 2016 threatened to sue Elsevier after the publisher retracted one of his papers has lost another article over concerns about the “integrity of the mathematics” in the paper. The article, “Eight-dimensional octonion-like but associative normed division algebra,” by Joy Christian, of the Einstein Centre for Local-Realistic Physics in Oxford, UK, appeared … Continue reading Algebra paper retracted because of questions about the “integrity of the mathematics”
An Elsevier journal has, for the moment, removed a paper which found that the patients of female surgeons fare better than those treated by men. Although the journal didn’t provide an explanation for the move — unfortunately not unusual for Elsevier — a spokesman for the publisher told us that reader complaints about the methodology … Continue reading Study finding patients of female surgeons fare better is temporarily removed
The editors of a journal that published a highly controversial paper on intelligent design say retraction is off the table, at least for the moment. The drama involves an article in the September issue of the Journal of Theoretical Biology, an Elsevier title, titled “Using statistical methods to model the fine-tuning of molecular machines and … Continue reading Editors say they won’t retract intelligent design paper despite subject being “not in any way a suitable topic” for their journal
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 retraction — and a lawsuit — for the “Prince … Continue reading Weekend reads: A prominent journal goes wrong; medical journals and politics; a journal with an editorial board full of dead people