The Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA) today retracted a paper it published last year claiming that vaping was linked to heart attacks. The paper, by Dharma Bhatta and Stanton Glantz of the University of California, San Francisco, has faced a barrage of criticism since its publication last June — and Glantz’s claims, in … Continue reading Journal retracts hotly contested paper on vaping and heart attacks
The authors of a 2019 Nature paper on hydrology have retracted it after commenters pointed out a slew of errors with the work. The article, “Global analysis of streamflow response to forest management,” was written by Jaivime Evaristo, of the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University, in The Netherlands, and Jeffrey McDonnell, of … Continue reading Authors retract Nature paper on dramatic increases in streamflow from deforestation
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: the retraction of a Nature paper by Harvard researchers; 13 … Continue reading Weekend reads: How to squander a $10 million grant; paid to publish; funding lotteries
More than five years after Nature retracted two highly suspect papers about what had been described as a major breakthrough in stem cell research, another journal has pulled a paper about the work. The scandal over so-called STAP stem cells took down more than just a few articles. The case centered on Haruko Obokata, a … Continue reading Fourth retraction for Haruko Obokata, focus of STAP cell scandal, after Harvard investigation
On December 29, Jan Behrends, of the Institute of Physiology at the University of Freiburg, in Germany, was checking his Google Scholar profile when he saw his name on a paper — one he’d played no part in writing. The article, “Microelectrochemical cell arrays for whole-cell currents recording through ion channel proteins based on trans-electroporation … Continue reading Former grad student forges his supervisor’s authorship — and gets smacked down
A journal has issued an expression of concern over a 2018 paper which involved strapping 21 anesthetized minipigs to sleds and running them into a wall at speeds of up to 25 miles per hour. The study, “Experimental study of thoracoabdominal injuries suffered from caudocephalad impacts using pigs,” came from the Third Military Medical University … Continue reading Journal expresses concern about possible animal abuse in trauma paper
The other day, we reported on the retraction this month of a paper that was laid low by reuse of experimental materials — cheese cloth, to be exact — when fresh were required. At the time, we asked the senior author, Donghai Wang, of Kansas State University, whether any other articles from his group had … Continue reading Group that reused cheese cloth in different experiments up to six retractions
Some Retraction Watch readers may recall that back in 2012, we called, in The Scientist, for the creation of a Transparency Index. Over the years, we’ve had occasional interest from others in that concept, and some good critiques, but we noted at the time that we did not have the bandwidth to create it ourselves. … Continue reading Has reproducibility improved? Introducing the Transparency and Rigor Index
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 new member of the 100-retraction club; A reviewer caught … Continue reading Weekend reads: An ugly fight in nutrition research; embezzling scientists; eyebrow-raising papers in China
The U.S. Office of Research Integrity has found a former post-doc at the University of Massachusetts Medical School guilty of misconduct stemming from falsification of data. The finding comes more than two years after a retraction referred to an investigation at U Mass. The ORI said Ozgur Tataroglu, who worked as a neurobiologist at the … Continue reading Former UMass post-doc faked data, says federal watchdog