The publisher SAGE is in the process of retracting more than 30 papers across three of its journals after determining that they were churned out by paper mills — prompting the company to take a closer look at its policies and procedures. The suspect papers were initially flagged by Elisabeth Bik and others as part … Continue reading Publisher retracting more than 30 articles from paper mills
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: Readers puzzle over marketing journal’s failures to retract Doing the … Continue reading Weekend reads: It’s not all publish or perish?; plagiarism hunters; controls on ‘gain of function’ research weaken
A law firm known for filing shareholder suits says that data supporting a drug company’s plan for trials of its experimental treatment for Alzheimer’s disease show evidence of manipulation. Stock in the company, Cassava Biosciences, tumbled yesterday after the FDA posted material from the firm, Labaton Sucharow, and a top research integrity expert tells Retraction … Continue reading Biotech’s data supporting Alzheimer’s trials under scrutiny
A group of researchers in Canada who’d collaborated with a one-time rising star in the bone field have retracted a 2014 article after determining that the data were unreliable. They did so even though the paper was not a focus of the investigations into the work of Abida Sophina “Sophie” Jamal, whose once sparkling career … Continue reading Doing the right thing: Co-authors of researcher who covered up data fakery retract paper
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: WHO COVID-19 library contains hundreds of papers from hijacked journals … Continue reading Weekend reads: Fraud in a study of dishonesty; scrutiny of an open access publisher; HHMI prof fired for sexual harassment
We have a confession right up front: You won’t meet the man — a man who claims to be a brain surgeon, no less — we refer to in the headline. That is because, dear reader, we were not able to contact the person who publishes under the name Michael George Zaki Ghali. What we … Continue reading Meet the alleged brain surgeon who squats on domains, punks journals and listed Wolf Blitzer as a co-author
If you need a reminder of how slowly the wheels of justice grind, here’s one. Earlier this month, Sam W. Lee agreed to pay the U.S. government $215,000 to settle allegations that the former Harvard researcher had made false claims in a grant application. It turns out that at least one skeptical researcher had notified … Continue reading The decade-long saga capped by a $215,000 settlement with the US government
This post was updated at 1145 UTC on August 13, 2021. In the original post, we noted that Joseph Powell and Gibran Hemani had not responded to our request for comment, which we sent shortly after learning under embargo from Nature that this retraction would be published. However, Powell did respond, copying Hemani, as Powell … Continue reading Authors — except one — retract 2014 Nature paper on genetics
A pair of authors have lost a 2020 paper claiming to link children’s vaccines to health and behavior problems after the journal concluded the data didn’t support the conclusions of the study. The authors of the paper, “Relative Incidence of Office Visits and Cumulative Rates of Billed Diagnoses along the Axis of Vaccination,” were James … Continue reading Authors blame a “ghoul” for retraction of paper claiming vaccines lead to health and behavioral issues
Less than a month after the withdrawal of a widely touted preprint claiming that ivermectin could treat COVID-19, the authors of a meta-analysis that relied heavily on the preprint say they will retract their paper. According to an expression of concern posted yesterday and announced by Paul Sax, the editor of the journal that published … Continue reading Ivermectin meta-analysis to be retracted, revised, say authors