What do subterranean insect provinces and motion to clamor have to do with microprocessors and microsystems? That’s an excellent question. Read on, dear reader.
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: ‘A costly mistake’ prompts retraction of paper on hair loss … Continue reading Weekend reads: Biotech CEO on leave after allegations on PubPeer; a researcher disavows his own paper; plagiarism here, there, and everywhere
Never let it be said that journals are not deliberative when it comes to correcting the record. Of course, “deliberative” also means “slow.” Take a 2018 article in the Journal of Infectious Diseases (JID) by a group of authors in India.
A Japanese anesthesiologist has been found guilty of fabricating data and other misconduct in 142 articles, leading to his termination and the sanction of several of his co-authors. Showa University says its investigation into Hironobu Ueshima, the existence of which we first reported on last June, found that the prolific researcher had doctored his results, … Continue reading Anesthesiology researcher guilty of misconduct in more than 140 papers: Investigation
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: “Riddled with errors”: Study of cell phones and breast cancer … Continue reading Weekend reads: JAMA editor placed on leave pending investigation; Harvard prof sanctioned for Epstein ties; when bad science goes uncorrected
We’re always on the lookout for papers with that fillip of irony that lets us wonder if the Great Comedian in the Sky enjoys our little project. This week, we found two such articles. One involves a 2008 paper in the Journal of Psycholinguistic Research titled “Examining Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis as One of the Main … Continue reading Irony alert: stolen voices, relative rip-off
An integrative health journal has issued an expression of concern for an article it published two years ago last month about the “human biofield” and related topics after receiving complaints that the piece lacked scientific “validity.” The article, “Energy Medicine: Current Status and Future Perspectives,” appeared in Global Advances in Health and Medicine, a SAGE … Continue reading “I absolutely stand by the validity of the science” says author of energy field paper now flagged by journal
Last February, Richard Pollock was reading a review in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews — a prominent resource for evidence-based medicine — when he spotted an error. In the first figure, which compared the effectiveness of two different treatments for the most common form of liver cancer, a label was switched. The error made … Continue reading Leading evidence-based group blames pandemic for 9-month delay pulling flawed cancer review
Ye Zhang, who as we reported yesterday is serving a six-month suspension from her post at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), in Japan, says she did not commit misconduct, as the school contends. In response to a query from Retraction Watch, Zhang, a materials scientist, said she did not agree with … Continue reading Okinawa researcher suspended for faking data denies committing misconduct
A materials scientist in Japan was found guilty of plagiarism and fabrication of data in a May 2019 paper, resulting in a six-month suspension, according to her institution. Ye Zhang, of the Bioinspired Soft Matter Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), was the senior author of “Enzyme-mediated dual-targeted-assembly realizes … Continue reading Okinawa university suspends researcher for six months following findings of plagiarism and faked data