Followers of this blog know that “a reader” seems to be the force behind a huge number of retractions – and that, despite the apparent unwillingness of journals to name them, they are real people. One of the more prolific “readers” is Elisabeth Bik, the data sleuth whose efforts to identify problematic images has led … Continue reading Journals acknowledge that a critical “reader” has a name: Elisabeth Bik
Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: Einstein fired researcher in 2019, more than two years before ORI finding Firing, publishing ban, 15 retractions for author who ‘defrauded’ co-authors in pay-to-publish scheme Five studies linked to Cassava Sciences retracted Doing the … Continue reading Weekend reads: Plagiarism in biblical scholarship; revelations about publishing ‘lab leak’ preprint; publishing sanctions on Russia
When Marianne Alunno-Bruscia, the research integrity officer at France’s national oceanographic science institute, uncovered nearly a dozen papers with fraudulent authorship, she thought she’d stumbled on something bizarre. She didn’t know how right she was. As we reported in early February, the problems arose during an audit the research activities of the L’Institut Français de … Continue reading Will the real Tim Chen please stand up? A trip down the rabbit hole of deceit
Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: Sports medicine researcher Paul McCrory requests another retraction Journal editor explains ban on manuscripts from Russian institutions NASA researchers retract Nature paper on climate change and evapotranspiration Was leading sports medicine researcher’s plagiarism ‘an … Continue reading Weekend reads: An academic and a Russian spy; concussion expert resigns from committee; publishing peer reviews
IOP Publishing has retracted a total of 350 papers from two different 2021 conference proceedings because an “investigation has uncovered evidence of systematic manipulation of the publication process and considerable citation manipulation.” The case is just the latest involving the discovery of papers full of gibberish – aka “tortured phrases” – thanks to the work … Continue reading Publisher retracts 350 papers at once
The overseers of the preprint server SocArXiv have withdrawn a paper which claims that treating Covid patients with ivermectin dramatically reduces their odds of hospitalization, calling the work “misleading” and “part of an unethical program by the government of Mexico City to dispense hundreds of thousands of doses of an inappropriate medication to people who … Continue reading Paper used to support claims that ivermectin reduces COVID-19 hospitalizations is withdrawn by preprint server
Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: Paper on “suspicious activities” on India-China border retracted ‘[T]he authors plagiarised a large amount of text, but…retractions should not be used as a tool to punish authors’ Court injunction forces gastro journal to slap … Continue reading Weekend reads: Academia with and without peer review; bogus journals; rector found guilty of misconduct
Last year, our group noticed an improper analysis of a purported cluster randomized trial (cRCT) in eClinicalMedicine, a Lancet journal, and requested deidentified raw data from the authors to conduct a proper analysis for the study design. Things were off to a good start. The authors shared their data immediately – which is commendable and, … Continue reading Courage and correction: how editors handle – and mishandle – errors in their journals
Last chance to make a tax-deductible contribution for 2021. Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: 2021: A review of the year’s 3,200 retractions ‘A clusterf**K’: Authors plagiarize material from NIH and elsewhere, make legal threats — then see their paper … Continue reading Weekend reads: A Russian paper mill under an X-ray; AI and doctored images; COVID-19 vaccine paper earns scrutiny
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: ‘Why did this take over five years?’ Reflecting on two … Continue reading Weekend reads: Academania; redaction bias; a Harvard star falls; top retractions of 2021