Search Results for: medical

Weekend reads: Fraud in a study of dishonesty; scrutiny of an open access publisher; HHMI prof fired for sexual harassment

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: WHO COVID-19 library contains hundreds of papers from hijacked journals … Continue reading Weekend reads: Fraud in a study of dishonesty; scrutiny of an open access publisher; HHMI prof fired for sexual harassment

Meet the alleged brain surgeon who squats on domains, punks journals and listed Wolf Blitzer as a co-author

We have a confession right up front: You won’t meet the man — a man who claims to be a brain surgeon, no less — we refer to in the headline.  That is because, dear reader, we were not able to contact the person who publishes under the name Michael George Zaki Ghali. What we … Continue reading Meet the alleged brain surgeon who squats on domains, punks journals and listed Wolf Blitzer as a co-author

The decade-long saga capped by a $215,000 settlement with the US government

If you need a reminder of how slowly the wheels of justice grind, here’s one. Earlier this month,  Sam W. Lee agreed to pay the U.S. government $215,000 to settle allegations that the former Harvard researcher had made false claims in a grant application. It turns out that at least one skeptical researcher had notified … Continue reading The decade-long saga capped by a $215,000 settlement with the US government

Authors — except one — retract 2014 Nature paper on genetics

This post was updated at 1145 UTC on August 13, 2021. In the original post, we noted that Joseph Powell and Gibran Hemani had not responded to our request for comment, which we sent shortly after learning under embargo from Nature that this retraction would be published. However, Powell did respond, copying Hemani, as Powell … Continue reading Authors — except one — retract 2014 Nature paper on genetics

Authors blame a “ghoul” for retraction of paper claiming vaccines lead to health and behavioral issues

A pair of authors have lost a 2020 paper claiming to link children’s vaccines to health and behavior problems after the journal concluded the data didn’t support the conclusions of the study.  The authors of the paper, “Relative Incidence of Office Visits and Cumulative Rates of Billed Diagnoses along the Axis of Vaccination,” were James … Continue reading Authors blame a “ghoul” for retraction of paper claiming vaccines lead to health and behavioral issues

Ivermectin meta-analysis to be retracted, revised, say authors

Less than a month after the withdrawal of a widely touted preprint claiming that ivermectin could treat COVID-19, the authors of a meta-analysis that relied heavily on the preprint say they will retract their paper. According to an expression of concern posted yesterday and announced by Paul Sax, the editor of the journal that published … Continue reading Ivermectin meta-analysis to be retracted, revised, say authors

Weekend reads: The ethics committee member who sold grades for cash; how to spot misconduct in clinical trials; biotech cited allegedly altered data in grant application

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: Should journals retract when an author is sent to prison … Continue reading Weekend reads: The ethics committee member who sold grades for cash; how to spot misconduct in clinical trials; biotech cited allegedly altered data in grant application

Researcher who faked co-authors earns two more retractions, publication ban following Retraction Watch coverage

Nine months after Retraction Watch notified a pair of journals about fraudulent letters they’d published by a researcher in Singapore, the publications are now being retracted.  As we reported last October following earlier news reports, Shunjie Chua, fabricated the names and affiliations of co-authors in at least four articles, two of which were being retracted. … Continue reading Researcher who faked co-authors earns two more retractions, publication ban following Retraction Watch coverage

Should journals retract when an author is sent to prison for a crime unrelated to their work?

Should a journal retract a paper when they learn that one of its authors has earned a year-long prison sentence for downloading child pornography? For Brill’s Journal of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics the answer was no. And experts in publication ethics say that was the right call. The researcher in question is Jan Joosten, who … Continue reading Should journals retract when an author is sent to prison for a crime unrelated to their work?

Pro-tip: When claiming to use a dataset, make sure it collects what you say it does

Irish eyes most definitely were not smiling on three papers that purported to contain data from a national repository from the Emerald Isle.  The articles, which appeared in a trio of journals from Dove Medical Press — part of Taylor & Francis — were written by various researchers at Nanchang University, in China.  Two of … Continue reading Pro-tip: When claiming to use a dataset, make sure it collects what you say it does