The new year will bring a sixth retraction for food scientist Brian Wansink, whose work has been under fire for all of 2017. Although the notice has not yet been released, the journal Appetite plans to retract a 2003 paper about the different forces that motivate people to try new foods (referring, in this specific … Continue reading Another retraction to appear for Cornell food scientist Brian Wansink
A 2016 case study in Neurology exploring a “mystery case” has been retracted because four figures had already been published in a 2012 article. The two papers have three authors in common, but according to the retraction notice, none could explain the duplicate publication. The notice states that Pierre Labauge, the corresponding author on the … Continue reading Paper retracted when co-author forgets he had published a figure before
A cancer journal has retracted a 2014 paper after discovering one image had been duplicated in seven other papers. That’s right—the same image appeared in a total of eight papers. For some of the papers, the issues went beyond the single image. According to the retraction notice, several papers contained other duplicated images, as well … Continue reading One image was duplicated in eight papers. Yes, eight.
A university investigation has found falsified data in a 2011 paper about the side effects of a virus commonly used in gene therapy. The authors are retracting the paper, but one co-author told Retraction Watch they stand by their main conclusions. According to Roland Herzog, a professor at the University of Florida (UF) College of … Continue reading University finds falsified data in PNAS gene therapy paper, authors retract
Elsevier has retracted 13 papers—and says it will retract 13 more—after discovering they were accepted because of fake reviews. A spokesperson for Elsevier told us that the journals are in the process of retracting all 26 papers affected by the “peer-review manipulation” and “unexplained authorship irregularities.” Most share one corresponding author, a physical science researcher … Continue reading Elsevier retracting 26 papers accepted because of fake reviews
Title: Industrial antifoam agents impair ethanol fermentation and induce stress responses in yeast cells What Caught Our Attention: When authors decide they want to make their articles freely available after they’ve already been published, how should publishers indicate the change, if at all? Recently, Ross Mounce (@rmounce) thought it was odd a Springer journal issued a … Continue reading Caught Our Notice: Forgot to make your article open access? It’ll cost you (with a correction)
An anatomy journal has banned a researcher from submitting papers for three years after determining one of his recently published papers suffered from “serious ethical” issues. According to Jae Seung Kang, associate editor at the journal Anatomy and Cell Biology (ACB), the paper’s sole author—Jae Chul Lee—falsified both his affiliation and approval for conducting animal … Continue reading Journal bans author for three years after retracting paper with “serious ethical” problems
The presence of allegedly obvious manipulations in a 2017 chemistry paper has prompted a reader outcry. Over the last couple of days, a user on PubPeer and others on Twitter have accused the paper of containing clear duplications; the paper was already corrected in August, in which one scientist alleges the authors replaced “an obviously … Continue reading Scientist to chemistry journal: “Plse retract this ms ASAP”
The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), a state-level agency in Brazil that funds scientific research, is suing Paty Karoll Picardi, a protégé of Brazilian diabetes researcher Mario Saad. According to a São Paulo Court of Justice website, the reason stated is for “recebimento of bolsa de estudos,“ which translates to “receipt of scholarship.” FAPESP is … Continue reading Brazil research foundation sues scientist over $103k scholarship
PLOS ONE has retracted two 2014 papers from a group of researchers, after an institutional investigation confirmed image duplication. Although the authors initially asked to correct the figures in the two papers, they ultimately agreed with the decision to retract. Mrinal K. Maiti—an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur and corresponding author … Continue reading PLOS ONE retracts two papers one year after author says he okayed the move