Jens Förster, the Dutch social psychologist accused of misconduct, has posted an open letter on his lab’s website in which he denies wrongdoing. The letter, in English and dated May 11, offers a detailed rebuttal to the investigation’s conclusions. It also offers a rationale for Förster’s decision not to post his data on the Internet. … Continue reading “I never manipulated data”: Förster defends actions in open letter
Retraction Watch has obtained an email from Jens Förster, the social psychologist in the Netherlands who, as Dutch media reported this week, was the target of a misconduct investigation at the University of Amsterdam. The inquiry led to the call for the retraction of a paper by Förster and a colleague, Markus Denzler, over concerns of … Continue reading Social psychologist Förster denies misconduct, calls charge “terrible misjudgment”
Another busy week at Retraction Watch. Here’s what was happening elsewhere on the web in scientific publishing and related issues:
Some authors of retracted studies persist in citing their retracted work, according to a new study in Science and Engineering Ethics that calls the trend “very concerning.”
In a case whose irony is not lost on those involved, an article about publishing ethics has been retracted because one of the authors re-used material he’d written for an earlier piece. But the authors and the journal’s editors have turned the episode into a learning opportunity. Here’s the notice for “Ethics and Integrity of … Continue reading Oh, the irony: Paper on “Ethics and Integrity of the Publishing Process” retracted for duplication
We’ve reported on some pretty impressive cases of researchers doing their own peer review, one of which led to 28 retractions. We have another. Yongdeng Lei, of the School of Geography and Remote Sensing Science at Beijing Normal University, pulled the wool over the eyes of two Springer journals. Here’s the notice from Environmental Management … Continue reading Want to make sure your paper gets published? Just do your own peer review like this researcher did
A cardiology researcher in Illinois coerced trainees to fake the results of a heart test so that patients would qualify to enter a clinical trial, according to a new finding by the Office of Research Integrity (ORI). Here’s an excerpt from the ORI’s notice about Parag V. Patel, of Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, in Park … Continue reading Researcher intimidated trainees into faking heart test results: ORI
Rick Reilly, a noted sports columnist, once wrote about football replays: Tell me if I’m a crank, but do you notice that every time a football replay comes up—and I mean every time—the color guy goes, “OK, now watch this!” I mean, what else are we gonna do? Suddenly start knitting a sweater? Start collecting … Continue reading Sports columnist Reilly loses ESPN.com gig after replaying his work
The editors of the journal Micron — an Elsevier title — have retracted its first paper ever, and in an editorial marking the occasion, take on a number of issues in scientific publishing misconduct. The beginning of the editorial (which is paywalled):
Retraction Watch has learned that The Leadership Quarterly, a management journal published by Elsevier, plans to retract five papers by a Florida researcher poised to “rock” the field — but probably not quite in the way a press release intended — whose findings in the articles were questioned by readers. The scholar, Fred O. Walumbwa, … Continue reading Leadership journal to retract five papers from FIU scholar