The authors of a 2019 paper on the properties of an aluminum alloy have retracted the work because, well, it was pretty much wrong. The article, “Effect of ultrasonic temperature and output power on microstructure and mechanical properties of as-cast 6063 aluminum alloy,” appeared in the March issue of the Journal of Alloys and Compounds, … Continue reading Aluminum paper foiled by slew of errors
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 us wondering why it takes a publisher a year and … Continue reading Weekend reads: The dark side of tenure; video game-gun violence retractions; data fraud in the drug industry
A materials scientist in Australia, by way of Iran, has recently had five papers retracted for duplicating his prior work, and the reader who brought the issue to publishers’ attention says it could affect some 100 articles. Ali Nazari, now of Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, was at Islamic Azad University in Iran when … Continue reading Materials scientist up to five retractions as publishers investigate dozens of his papers
Sometimes, a paper comes along that is so revolutionary, it defies description. So rather than try to do justice to a recent paper in Parasitology Research, we’ll reproduce a few paragraphs here:
In December 2015, a U.S. government watchdog said a researcher named Girija Dasmahapatra had faked data in 11 papers. Two of those papers were retracted by October 2016. And then, until this year, nothing happened.
A spectroscopy journal has issued an expression of concern over a 2014 paper by researchers in Iran on the amount of the sleep hormone melatonin in pistachios after German authorities — prompted by a journalist’s questions — concluded that the analysis was in error. The article, “Expression of concern to spectrofluorimetric determination of melatonin in … Continue reading Journalist’s questions lead to expression of concern for paper on melatonin and pistachios
A pair of grief scholars in Denmark have lost a 2018 paper on ghostly apparitions after one of the researchers copied text from another article. The study, “How many bereaved people hallucinate about their loved one? A systematic review and meta-analysis of bereavement hallucinations,” appeared in the Journal of Affective Disorders, an Elsevier publication. Authors … Continue reading ‘Search for inspiration’ lands too close to plagiarism, forcing retraction of grief paper
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 researchers who had Science and Nature papers retracted on the … Continue reading Weekend reads: Unhealthy reliance on metrics; a letter that drew curse words; why some U.S. researchers may be fired
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 “clandestine retraction,” faked data at the University of Washington, … Continue reading Weekend reads: What $50 million won’t fix; was a prized research tarantula poached?; “statistical anarchy”
In what seems like another entry in our occasional “Retraction Watch Mad Libs” series, Elsevier has withdrawn a paper that claimed to link the aluminum in vaccines to behavioral changes in sheep. The paper, which appeared online in Pharmacological Research in November of last year, was swiftly picked up by antivaccine advocates such as Celeste … Continue reading Here we go again: Paper linking vaccines to cognitive damage (in sheep) retracted