Here’s a story that’s likely to strike a sour chord with graduate students. A researcher in Italy has lost his 2020 paper, based on work he conducted for his doctoral thesis, after the university claimed that he didn’t have the right to publish the data. The paper, “Musical practice and BDNF plasma levels as a … Continue reading Who owns your thesis data? We do, says one university, prompting retraction
The authors of a paper on the antidepressant effects of ketamine have retracted their article for a lack of reproducibility — but readers have no way of knowing that because the journal declined to say as much in the retraction notice. If that sounds like a tale from the pages of the Journal of Neuroscience, … Continue reading Authors yank ketamine study, hoping it will go away without attention, and journal obliges
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: Ecologist who lost thesis awards earns expressions of concern after … Continue reading Weekend reads: Allegations about exploitative research; COVID-19 retractions; how to get cited more often
An integrative health journal has retracted a 2019 paper two months after issuing an expression of concern about the article distancing itself from the work. The paper, which appeared in Global Advances in Health and Medicine, was a review of “energy medicine” by Christina Ross, of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. As we reported … Continue reading Paper on ‘energy medicine’ retracted after reader complaints
One of China’s leading scientists in the fight against COVID-19 failed to disclose ties to a pharmaceutical company in a paper stemming from a clinical trial, Retraction Watch has learned. A co-author on the paper is married to the daughter of that pharmaceutical company’s founder, who herself sits on the firm’s board of directors. Nanshan … Continue reading Prominent Chinese scientist failed to disclose company ties in COVID-19 clinical trial paper
Three days after we reported that Elsevier would be retracting a paper about COVID-19 and masks whose author claimed a false affiliation with Stanford, the publisher tells us that the “paper is misleading,” “misquotes and selectively cites published papers,” and that the data in one table is “unverified.” As we noted earlier this week: The … Continue reading Mask study was “misleading” and misquotes citations, says Elsevier
Collaborations can be fraught. Ask David Ojcius. Ojcius, an emeritus professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Merced, and a department chair at the University of the Pacific, is up to four retractions, five corrections and an expression of concern in papers he wrote with collaborators in China and elsewhere. Ojcius … Continue reading On the perils of scientific collaboration from thousands of miles away
A “miracle doctor” in China and his colleagues have lost a 2007 paper on the ability of the martial art qigong to treat cancer after the journal that published the work said it failed to properly vet the findings. Well, the first part of that is true. The second part is implied. We’ll explain. The … Continue reading Journal retracts paper by ‘miracle doctor’ claiming life force kills cancer cells
A study that warned of the perils of using face masks as a precaution against contracting Covid-19 appears slated for retraction, Retraction Watch has learned. [Please see an update on this post.] The 2020 paper, “Facemasks in the COVID-19 era: A health hypothesis,” was written by Baruch Vainshelboim, who listed his affiliation as Stanford University … Continue reading Elsevier journal to retract widely debunked masks study whose author claimed a Stanford affiliation
Cureus has retracted a pair of case studies after the authors revealed that the informed consent they’d received from the patients had been revoked. The fate of articles — both by authors in the United Kingdom — highlight the precariousness of papers that rely on consent from patients or, in one instance, their proxies. One … Continue reading Two retractions spotlight the ethical challenges of consent for case reports