Two journals published by Elsevier are retracting a pair of material science papers that appear to share figures. The papers — in Materials Letters and Optics Communications — discuss photonic crystals, a kind of material used to manipulate light. They share the same first author, Zheng-qi Liu at Jiangxi Normal University and Nanjing University in China, as well as … Continue reading Duplication shatters two photonic crystal papers
An astrophysics journal is retracting a paper on black holes whose first author is a teenager about to earn his PhD, after learning the paper “draws extensively” from a book chapter by the last author. Many papers are pulled for duplication, but few get a news release from the publisher about it. In a move that we … Continue reading Black hole paper by teenaged prodigy retracted for duplication
An environmental journal has pulled a 2011 paper following an investigation, which revealed it contained “extensive similarities” with another paper published two years earlier by some of the same authors. Two of the authors of the newly retracted paper — Zulfiqar Ahmad from Quaid-i-Azam University and Arshad Ashraf of the National Agricultural Research Center, both in … Continue reading Authors object to duplication verdict by environmental journal
A tipster’s complaints have led to the retraction of two papers in the Journal of Neurosurgery for “plagiarism, duplicate publication, and copyright infringement.” The corresponding author for both papers, Hung-Chuan Pan of Taichung Veterans General Hospital, had contacted the journal about publishing an erratum for one of the articles when the journal was tipped off by … Continue reading Authors retract two neuroscience papers for duplication and plagiarism
A paper on how abnormal stem cells can cause benign bone tumors has been retracted by Cell Stem Cell after an inquiry into image duplications also uncovered “multiple instances of inappropriate western blot image adjustment.” The first two authors “declined” to sign the retraction, according to the notice. Besides confirming initial suspicions that images had been … Continue reading Inquiry into duplications reveals “multiple” image problems in tumor study
Over a decade ago, a case report on a woman with cervical cancer and lymphoma was “published twice” by the International Journal of Gynecological Cancer within the span of a few months. The retraction note came out just now. One copy of the paper appeared in the July 2003 issue of the journal. The second, now-retracted, copy — “Coincidental detection … Continue reading Cervical cancer paper is scrapped for duplication in the same journal, year
A 2002 paper in the Journal of Biological Chemistry on how lung cancer cells resist death has been retracted for duplicating figures from a 2001 paper. The retracted paper, “Fibroblast growth factor-2 induces translational regulation of Bcl-XL and Bcl-2 via a MEK-dependent pathway: correlation with resistance to etoposide-induced apoptosis,” shares the first and last authors … Continue reading JBC cancer paper felled by duplication is one author’s second retraction this month
An article by Alexander Spivak, a mathematician based in Israel, is being retracted from the proceedings of a 2014 numerical analysis meeting because Spivak had already published “a major part of text and results” in a mathematics journal in 2010. Spivak, a member of the faculty of sciences at Holon Institute of Technology, has a bit of a … Continue reading Duplication of “a major part of text and results” adds up to third retraction for mathematician
The Archives of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery has retracted a study about whether developing fistula puts hemodialysis patients at higher risk of carpal tunnel syndrome because it “duplicated substantial parts” and “manipulated some original data” from a study by other researchers. The retraction notice says it all:
This week saw us profiled in The New York Times and de Volkskrant, and the introduction of our new staff writer. We also launched The Retraction Watch Leaderboard. Here’s what was happening elsewhere: