One of the authors of a paper in Physical Review Letters has withdrawn it, after someone pointed out an error. The paper, “Coulomb Forces on DNA Polymers in Charged Fluidic Nanoslits,” was written by Brown University’s Derek Stein and one of his graduate students, Yongqiang Ren. It was published in February of this year, and the retraction ran on July 20. The notice is forthright:
We have an update to our coverage of the retractions involving papers from a group of researchers in Iran that were published in Computational and Theoretical Chemistry (formerly called the Journal of Molecular Structure: THEOCHEM) Although we have not received a response from the first author of those studies, Siavash Riahi, one author, Mohammad Reza … Continue reading Chemist: “corresponding author should answer” questions regarding retracted papers
If a paper that has never been cited is retracted, will it be missed? Japanese researchers have retracted an obscure 1996 article in an equally obscure physics journal after concluding — some 15 years later — that their fundamental assertion was mistaken. The paper, “Uptake and excretion of cobalt in the crustacean Portunus trituberculatus,” in … Continue reading Another unofficial record? Authors walk back arcane blue crab paper — 15 years later
The publisher Elsevier has announced that it is retracting 11 papers from a team of Brazilian researchers over concerns that the scientists committed fraud in the studies. The notice is pegged to an October 2009 article in the Journal of Colloid and Interface Science titled “Immobilization of 5-amino-1,3,4-thiadiazole-thiol onto kanemite for thorium(IV) removal: Thermodynamics and … Continue reading Hazardous materials: Elsevier retracts 11 chemistry papers from Brazilian group, citing fraud
Well, it’s happened: The Embargo Watch and Retraction Watch worlds have collided. I had initially figured on two posts here, but it soon became clear that how journals were handling these retractions, using embargoes, was central to both. So this is being cross-posted on both blogs. Linda Buck, who shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in … Continue reading Nobelist Linda Buck retracts two studies on olfactory networks — and the news is embargoed
Yesterday, on a story about a Congressional hearing on the progress of oil spill cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico, the Guardian ran the following headline: BP oil spill: US scientist retracts assurances over success of cleanup NOAA’s Bill Lehr says three-quarters of the oil that gushed from the Deepwater Horizon rig is still in … Continue reading Did a NOAA scientist “retract” an overoptimistic oil spill report?
“Because of its growing reach and influence, Retraction Watch’s investigations and revelations have helped to address the issue of ‘unhelpful retraction notices’.” In 2020, NewsGuard said we were “unsung heroes,” one of ten sites they pointed to as “models in producing content that is truthful, compelling, credible, and transparent.” “The seamier side of academia, lying, … Continue reading What people are saying about Retraction Watch