Search Results for: sting

Study comparing hydroxychloroquine and antiviral drug for COVID-19 retracted

The authors of a study comparing hydroxychloroquine and the antiviral agent favipiravir as treatments for COVID-19 have lost the paper after post-publication peer review determined that the data did not support the conclusions.  “Safety and efficacy of favipiravir versus hydroxychloroquine in management of COVID-19: A randomised controlled trial” appeared in March in Scientific Reports, a … Continue reading Study comparing hydroxychloroquine and antiviral drug for COVID-19 retracted

“[T]hese shit comments”: Author of a nonsense paper responds on PubPeer

A conference proceedings for the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) has retracted a 2021 paper which appears to have been produced in part by the fake article generator SCIGen — an allegation the corresponding author denies. “Estimate The Efficiency Of Multiprocessor’s Cash Memory Work Algorithms” appeared earlier this year in the 2021 IEEE … Continue reading “[T]hese shit comments”: Author of a nonsense paper responds on PubPeer

Introducing two sites that claim to sell authorships on scientific papers

Two years ago, we reported on a website based in Russia that claimed to have brokered authorships for more than 10,000 researchers. (Apparently, neither our coverage nor a cease-and-desist letter from Clarivate Analytics had any effect on the site’s operations.) And now, we bring you news of what look like two very similar sites — … Continue reading Introducing two sites that claim to sell authorships on scientific papers

Pro-tip: Before submitting your manuscript, delete the plagiarism detection report text

It’s happened to all of us: You’re putting the final touches on your manuscript and run plagiarism detection software against it. Somehow, part of the software’s report ends up in your abstract — and neither you nor the peer reviewers nor the publishing team notices. Well, it’s happened to one group of researchers, anyway. Here’s … Continue reading Pro-tip: Before submitting your manuscript, delete the plagiarism detection report text

Guest editor says journal will retract dozens of inappropriate papers after his email was hacked

What do aerobics and dance training have to do with geology? If that sounds like an odd question, take a look at more than 70 articles in a special collection of the Arabian Journal of Geosciences, published by Springer Nature, with titles such as:

Second time’s the charm: The author who requested a retraction twice

As Jason Isbell sings, doing the right thing is the hardest thing to do. But sometimes it’s even harder than it needs to be. Ask Cory Xian.  When Xian, a bone researcher at the University of South Australia, in Adelaide, and his colleagues found an error in their 2018 paper in the Journal of Bone … Continue reading Second time’s the charm: The author who requested a retraction twice

Authors crop estimate that was off by a factor of 60 — or $3 trillion

A paper that tried to estimate the cost of invasive species to farming in Africa has been corrected because the researchers made a pair of errors that dramatically inflated their calculations.  One mistake led the group, from Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Ghana and Kenya, to overstate the cost to African agricultural of invasive vegetation by … Continue reading Authors crop estimate that was off by a factor of 60 — or $3 trillion

Attorney asks Retraction Watch to remove post because client has lost out on opportunities

A cancer researcher once involved in a federal research integrity probe has repeatedly been denied funding and other sources of income, according to his attorney, who blamed our coverage of the case for the scientist’s continuing woes and asked us to remove a post.   [Please see an update on this post.] Our coverage of the … Continue reading Attorney asks Retraction Watch to remove post because client has lost out on opportunities

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

Critics face legal threats as journal takes more than three years to act

More than three and a half years after being alerted to concerns about the data in a 2015 article, an obstetrics journal has finally retracted the paper, citing a lack of ethics approval for the work. Meanwhile, the co-author of a meta-analysis that relies heavily on the paper has suggested that some critics of the … Continue reading Critics face legal threats as journal takes more than three years to act