There are various ways to respond to criticism of one’s work. There is the “well, that’s not pleasant news, but thank you, I’ll correct that straightaway” approach. There’s the “I guess we’ll correct this but hope no one notices” approach. There’s the “I’m suing you” approach — often followed by “never mind.” And then there’s … Continue reading “I decline to respond” but “take this history to undermine”
A team of researchers in Europe has retracted a 2016 paper on how people with autism process social cues after finding an error in their analysis. The article, “Social Bayes: using Bayesian modeling to study autistic trait–related differences in social cognition,” appeared in Biological Psychiatry, an Elsevier journal. The senior author of the paper is … Continue reading Doing the right thing: Authors retract paper on autism and social clues after realizing an error
A group of ophthalmology researchers in China got caught trying to pull the wool over the eyes of readers by falsely claiming to have used a therapy that doesn’t exist. As its title would indicate, the article, “Anti-angiogenic effect of Interleukin-26 in oxygen-induced retinopathy mice via inhibiting NFATc1-VEGF pathway,” by a team from Jinhua Municipal … Continue reading ‘The problem is that there is no IL-26 gene in the mouse’ — an exasperated letter leads to a retraction
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 the retraction of a paper that claimed that scientists were … Continue reading Weekend reads: Citation manipulation gone wild; astrology meets research; a classic mistake in a study of free will
SAGE Publishing is today retracting 22 articles by a materials science researcher who published in two of their journals — but the anonymous reader who brought the problems to their attention says the author’s duplication affects more than 100 articles. Ali Nazari, now of Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, had five papers retracted earlier … Continue reading A publisher just retracted 22 articles. And the whistleblower is just getting started.
As we’ve noted before, “the wheels of scientific publishing turn slowly … but they do (sometimes) turn.” More than six years after the first retraction for Erin Potts-Kant, who was part of a group at Duke whose work would unravel amid misconduct allegations and lead to a $112.5 million settlement earlier this year with the … Continue reading “Highly unusual and unfortunate error” delays retraction two years in high-profile Duke case
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 researcher at Northwestern who’s up to five retractions; a … Continue reading Weekend reads: The scale of misconduct in China; toxic peer reviews; license to publish?; an editorial revolt
Is it possible for just one researcher to perform a clinical trial of more than 200 participants? According to the editorial board of the European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, an Elsevier title, the answer would seem to be no. The journal has decided to retract a 2016 paper in which the … Continue reading “Questioned as implausible:” Journal retracts paper because a researcher claimed to perform a large clinical trial single-handedly
Researchers in China have lost a 2015 meta-analysis on pancreatic cancer, one of several retractions for members of the group stemming from a variety of abuses including bogus authorship and fake peer review. The meta-analysis, “Correlation between serum levels of high mobility group box-1 protein and pancreatitis: a meta-analysis,” appeared in BioMed Research International, a … Continue reading Meta-meta-analysis meets with retraction for group that had faked peer review elsewhere
Before we present this week’s Weekend Reads, a request: Our co-founder Ivan Oransky is celebrating a birthday this coming week, and he’d like nothing more than a gift to Retraction Watch to support our work. Here’s your chance. The week at Retraction Watch featured a psychology researcher who did the right thing; 15 retractions by … Continue reading Weekend reads: A week of whistleblower news, including what happens when one gets it wrong; questions about a widely covered study of men with guitar bags