Search Results for: authorship

Unintended consequences: How authorship guidelines destroyed a relationship

It started as a simple email exchange over authorship. But it angered one researcher so much that it ended a 20-year collaboration. In January 2017, a chemist based in Mexico had finished writing a paper describing the structure of a molecule. Sylvain Bernès, at the Instituto de Física Luis Rivera Terrazas, asked his co-author—the head … Continue reading Unintended consequences: How authorship guidelines destroyed a relationship

Weekend reads: Citation cartels; less authorship credit for women; theft by peer reviewers

The week at Retraction Watch featured a discussion of whether peer reviewers should replicate experiments, and a look at whether social psychology really has a retraction problem. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

A new way to fake authorship: Submit under a prominent name, then say it was a mistake

Recently, the editors of a journal about management science received a submission from a prominent Dutch economist. But something didn’t feel right about it. For one, the author submitted the paper using a Yahoo email address. So the editors contacted the author via his institutional email; immediately, the researcher denied having submitted the paper — … Continue reading A new way to fake authorship: Submit under a prominent name, then say it was a mistake

Post you may have missed: Tomato study squashed by authorship, data problems

A technical glitch prevented a story from reaching our email subscribers earlier today, so in case you missed it: Tomato study didn’t get co-author okays, includes unreliable data Like Retraction Watch? Consider making a tax-deductible contribution to support our growth. You can also follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, add us to your RSS reader, sign up … Continue reading Post you may have missed: Tomato study squashed by authorship, data problems

Medical journal retracts study over fake review, authorship concerns

A journal has retracted a 2015 study about lung cancer after learning the peer-review process had been compromised. The paper was published in March, 2015 — the same month publisher BioMed Central (BMC) pulled 43 papers for fake reviews. According to the retraction notice in the European Journal of Medical Research, the authors’ institution in China … Continue reading Medical journal retracts study over fake review, authorship concerns

7 signs a scientific paper’s authorship was bought

Did you know there is a black market for scientific papers? Unfortunately, there is a growing trend of authors purchasing a spot on the author list of papers-for-sale – and the better the journal, the higher the price. This worrisome trend has been on the minds of Peggy Mason at the University of Chicago and … Continue reading 7 signs a scientific paper’s authorship was bought

Journal flags paper at center of authorship dispute

A journal has issued an expression of concern (EOC) for a nanofilm paper after a researcher protested being left off the author list.  According to the notice in Carbohydrate Polymers, the University of Calcutta in West Bengal, India, where the research was carried out, has “failed to provide evidence of a thorough, fair, and proper … Continue reading Journal flags paper at center of authorship dispute

Authorship, funding misstatements force retraction of satellite study

Remote Sensing Letters has retracted a 2015 paper by a pair of researchers in China because the duo was in fact a solo, and the manuscript lied about its funding source. The article, “A novel method of feature extraction and fusion and its application in satellite images classification,” purportedly was written by Da Lin and Xin … Continue reading Authorship, funding misstatements force retraction of satellite study

2001 sepsis paper “deviates from the ethical standard of authorship,” says journal

We don’t have a lot of information on a recent retraction of a 2001 paper published in a Japanese journal — just a brief and strongly worded note explaining that it follows “a strict, extensive, and judicious review.” The paper, retracted 14 years after it was published, describes patients in Okinawa, Japan who developed severe symptoms … Continue reading 2001 sepsis paper “deviates from the ethical standard of authorship,” says journal

Authorship dispute fells membrane paper

A membrane paper has been retracted only two months after publication in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B because of an authorship dispute. The paper, “Magnetic Interaction of Transition Ion Salts with Spin Labeled Lipid Membranes: Interplay of Anion-Specific Adsorption, Electrostatics, and Membrane Fluidity,” has not been cited, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge. (It appears to … Continue reading Authorship dispute fells membrane paper