Search Results for: doing the right thing

Authors lied about ethics approval for study on obesity, depression

Obesity has retracted a study that suggested overweight people may be less depressed than their slimmer counterparts in cultures where fat isn’t stigmatized, after realizing the authors lied about having ethical approval to conduct the research. The authors claimed their research protocol had been approved by Norwegian and Bangladeshi ethical committees, but, according to the retraction note, part of … Continue reading Authors lied about ethics approval for study on obesity, depression

My life as a whistleblower: Q&A with Peter Wilmshurst

We’re presenting a Q&A session with Peter Wilmshurst, now a part-time consultant cardiologist who has spent decades embroiled in misconduct investigations as a whistleblower. Retraction Watch: A UK judge recently upheld two findings of dishonesty by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service against Andrew Dowson, director of headache services at King’s College Hospital and your former … Continue reading My life as a whistleblower: Q&A with Peter Wilmshurst

Did a clinical trial proceed as planned? New project finds out

A new project does the relatively straightforward task of comparing reported outcomes from clinical trials to what the researchers said they planned to measure before the trial began. And what they’ve found is a bit sad, albeit not entirely surprising. As part of The Compare Project, author and medical doctor Ben Goldacre and his team … Continue reading Did a clinical trial proceed as planned? New project finds out

Improving reproducibility: What can funders do? Guest post by Dorothy Bishop

We’re pleased to present a guest post from Dorothy Bishop, a researcher who focuses on neurodevelopmental disorders at Oxford University, and is also heavily involved in efforts to improve reproducibility in science, including chairing the steering committee of a recent symposium on the topic organised by the Academy of Medical Sciences. Here, she talks about … Continue reading Improving reproducibility: What can funders do? Guest post by Dorothy Bishop

Weekend reads: Papers de-emphasized for funding; reproducibility revolution; reining in fraud in China

The week at Retraction Watch featured a particularly misleading retraction notice, and a university stripping a graduate of her PhD for misconduct. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Making error detection easier – and more automated: A guest post from the co-developer of “statcheck”

We’re pleased to present a guest post from Michèle B. Nuijten, a PhD student at Tilburg University who helped develop a program called “statcheck,” which automatically spots statistical mistakes in psychology papers, making it significantly easier to find flaws. Nuijten writes about how such a program came about, and its implications for other fields. Readers … Continue reading Making error detection easier – and more automated: A guest post from the co-developer of “statcheck”

Authors defend publishing clinical trial six times, even as they earn two more retractions

In August, we reported on a clinical trial on hundreds of hypertensive patients that was published six times. Now, copies published in Expert Opinion on Drug Safety and Journal of the American Society of Hypertension (JASH) have been retracted, making for a total of three retractions for the group of papers. The authors have defended the papers as being decidedly … Continue reading Authors defend publishing clinical trial six times, even as they earn two more retractions

Where I think Retraction Watch went wrong: A guest post from Paolo Macchiarini

We are pleased to present a guest post by Paolo Macchiarini, a surgeon best known for pioneering the creation of tracheas from cadavers and patients’ own stem cells. Macchiarini has faced some harsh criticisms over the years, including accusations of downplaying the risks of the procedure and not obtaining proper consent. We have covered the investigation, including … Continue reading Where I think Retraction Watch went wrong: A guest post from Paolo Macchiarini

Biologist banned by second publisher

Plant researcher Jaime A. Teixeira da Silva has been banned from submitting papers to any journals published by Taylor & Francis. The reason: “continuing challenges” to their procedures and the use of “inflammatory language.” This is the second time Teixeira da Silva has been banned by a publisher —  last year Elsevier journal Scientia Horticulturae told him that … Continue reading Biologist banned by second publisher

Top official at Indian university plagiarized most of paper

A top official and law researcher at a university in India is facing dismissal after being charged with plagiarizing approximately three-quarters of one of her papers, among other allegations. Chandra Krishnamurthy, the Vice Chancellor at Pondicherry University, has been “placed under ‘compulsory wait’ by the Union human resource ministry following several charges against her,” according to … Continue reading Top official at Indian university plagiarized most of paper