This week at Retraction Watch featured seven retractions in a long-running case involving cancer research, as well as the retraction of a paper claiming a link between a vaccine and behavioral issues. Here’s what was happening elsewhere: Continue reading Weekend reads: Prof charged with $8 million research fraud; war on bullshit science; more Macchiarini fallout
STAP stem cell researcher Obokata loses another paper
The first author of two high-profile Nature retractions about a technique to easily create stem cells has lost another paper in Nature Protocols.
Haruko Obokata, once “a lab director’s dream,” according to The New Yorker, also had her PhD revoked from Waseda University last fall.
After learning of concerns that two figures are “very similar” and “some of the error bars look unevenly positioned,” the rest of the authors were unable to locate the raw data, according to the note. The journal could not reach Obokata for comment before publishing the retraction.
“Reproducible subcutaneous transplantation of cell sheets into recipient mice” has been cited 21 times, according to Thomson Reuters Web of Science. It was published in June 2011, soon after Obokata earned her PhD.
Here’s the note:
Continue reading STAP stem cell researcher Obokata loses another paper
Top journals give mixed response to learning published trials didn’t proceed as planned
Ben Goldacre has been a busy man. In the last six weeks, the author and medical doctor’s Compare Project has evaluated 67 clinical trials published in the top five medical journals, looking for any “switched outcomes,” meaning the authors didn’t report something they said they would, or included additional outcomes in the published paper, with no explanation for the change. The vast majority – 58 – included such discrepancies. Goldacre talked to us about how journals – New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), JAMA, The Lancet, BMJ, and Annals of Internal Medicine — have responded to this feedback.
Retraction Watch: When you discover a published trial has switched outcomes, what do you do? Continue reading Top journals give mixed response to learning published trials didn’t proceed as planned
Reporter fired by WIRED had been dismissed by newspaper for missing deadlines
We have learned that Nic Cavell, who was dismissed last week from WIRED for plagiarizing in several stories for the publication’s website, was fired from another publication for missing deadlines.
Before Cavell was selected to be a 2016 reporting fellow at WIRED magazine — a paid six-month position for promising young reporters — he wrote on the crime beat for The Riverdale Press, a Bronx paper. His 20 bylines span February 2015 to June 2015. We have learned from a source who wished to remain anonymous that he was let go after he had trouble handing in those stories on time.
Riverdale Press editor Shant Shahrigian, who declined to comment on the reasons for Cavell’s departure, told us that he had not encountered plagiarism in the reporter’s work: Continue reading Reporter fired by WIRED had been dismissed by newspaper for missing deadlines
Al Jazeera America pulls satire hours after posting, calling it “not appropriate”
About 13 hours after posting a satirical piece it posted at 2:00 AM today listing six hot media startups to watch in 2016, Al Jazeera America has retracted it.
The satire? Al Jazeera itself is listed as #6, even though the channel is scheduled to close down in April.
In its place is the following message: Continue reading Al Jazeera America pulls satire hours after posting, calling it “not appropriate”
Cyberterrorism paper under attack for plagiarizing from multiple sources
A paper about combating cyberterrorism is coming under fire after allegations of plagiarism sparked on social media.
Soon after the paper was published by the journal Computer Technology and Application in 2015, Orgnet LLC, a network analysis software company, announced on Twitter that the paper took content from its webpage. The firm tweeted: Continue reading Cyberterrorism paper under attack for plagiarizing from multiple sources
Methodology of paper linking vaccine to behavioral issues “seriously flawed,” says retraction
After temporarily removing a paper that suggested a link between the vaccine for the human papillomavirus (HPV) and behavioral issues, the journal has now retracted it.
Vaccine says the reason is “serious concerns regarding the scientific soundness of the article,” including flawed methodology and unjustified claims.
Christopher A. Shaw, a co-author on the paper and a researcher at the University of British Columbia, told us he has seen the notice, but doesn’t know the specific issues the journal had with the paper:
We still don’t know why [Editor in Chief] Dr Poland removed the article.
Here’s the retraction notice for “Behavioral abnormalities in young female mice following administration of aluminum adjuvants and the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil:”
Sweden, rocked by scientific scandals, re-thinking how it investigates misconduct
The Swedish government is taking a second look at how it handles misconduct investigations.
According to a spokesperson:
Yes, we have an national investigation ongoing since last autumn. It will investigate how misconduct is investigated and handled in Sweden…
She also sent us a link to a description of the investigation, in Swedish. The outcome of the investigation is expected in November, 2016.
The inquiry predates the media implosion that’s taken place in recent months over the Karolinska Institutet’s (KI) investigation of surgeon Paolo Macchiarini, who transplanted tracheas seeded with patients’ own stem cells. Continue reading Sweden, rocked by scientific scandals, re-thinking how it investigates misconduct
“That was a really bad Friday for us:” WIRED warns four stories were plagiarized
Last Friday, WIRED editor Adam Rogers got a direct message on Twitter that no journalist wants to see. Christina Larson, a freelance writer in China, told him she had seen overlap with her own work in a few WIRED stories, and included links to the relevant pieces.
“She was gracious, just asking for a link back in the future, said she loved WIRED,” Rogers told Retraction Watch by phone this afternoon. It was early morning in San Francisco, so Rogers thanked her for bringing the issue to his attention, and said he’d look at it more closely when he arrived at his desk some 45 minutes later.
It was the start of an episode that would lead to the dismissal of a WIRED reporter, and the addition of warning notes to four of the publication’s stories.
Continue reading “That was a really bad Friday for us:” WIRED warns four stories were plagiarized
Doctor suspended in UK after faking co-authors, data
A doctor in Manchester, UK has received a year’s suspension by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service.
Gemina Doolub admitted that she fabricated research data and submitted papers without the knowledge of her co-authors, including faking an email address for a co-author, a news story in the BMJ reports. The research in question was part of two retractions that Doolub received in 2013, one of which we covered at the time.
Doolub’s research examined ways to treat and avoid microvascular obstruction — that is, blocked arteries. Doolub did the work while at Oxford.
“Intracoronary Adenosine versus Intravenous Adenosine during Primary PCI for ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction: Which One Offers Better Outcomes in terms of Microvascular Obstruction?” was published in International Scholarly Research Notices Cardiology and has not yet been cited, according to Thomson Reuters Web of Science.
As the BMJ reports, in that paper,
Continue reading Doctor suspended in UK after faking co-authors, data