Overweight people are more dishonest, women with endometriosis are more attractive, and affirmative action needs to stop: Papers with these three conclusions have come under intense scrutiny on social media in recent days, with at least one retracted. First up, a study — widely criticized for being sexist — which claimed to find that Women … Continue reading A retraction and a retraction request as Twitter users call out sexism, fat-shaming, and racism
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 review of a French hydroxychloroquine study that found it … Continue reading Weekend reads: Image duplication software debuts; papers that plagiarize Wikipedia; ‘Time to Get Serious About Research Fraud’
We’re pleased to present an excerpt from Stuart Ritchie’s new book, Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth. One of the best-known, and most absurd, scientific fraud cases of the twentieth century also concerned transplants – in this case, skin grafts. While working at the prestigious Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute … Continue reading “[H]ow gullible reviewers and editors…can be”: An excerpt from Science Fictions
Date of Change Field Change Reason 7/13/2020 Reasons add: Transfer of Copyright/Ownership To indicate when a retraction is made solely for a change in copyright or ownership of material. Commonly seen when books/journals change or when copyright reverts back to the authors. Does NOT refer to disputes/violations in ownership or copyright. 10/2/2020 Reasons Removed “Prior” … Continue reading Retraction Watch Database User Guide Appendix D: Changes
The cats are back. As promised, Biological Conservation has replaced a controversial paper on feral cats in China whose cringeworthy title — “Where there are girls, there are cats” — prompted an outcry on social media that resulted in a temporary retraction. The new article boasts a different, non-gendered title: “Understanding how free-ranging cats interact … Continue reading “Where there are girls, there are cats” returns, with a new title
An Elsevier journal is wearing an omelet on its face after accepting a paper by a group of authors who have completely disavowed the work. Oh, and no one seems to know who one of the authors is, which makes the second time inside of a month that we’ve reported on a case like this. … Continue reading Meet Bo Liu, international man or woman of scientific mystery
A criminologist whose work has been under scrutiny for a year is set to have a sixth paper retracted, Retraction Watch has learned. Last July, Justin Pickett, of the University of Albany at the State University of New York, posted a 27-page explanation of why he was asking for one of his papers to be … Continue reading Criminology researcher to lose sixth paper
Following an investigation prompted by a whistleblower, a university in Australia has recommended that one of its researchers retract two papers, Retraction Watch has learned. The reviews, “Cryptography and State-of-the-art Techniques” and “An Advanced Survey on Cloud Computing and State-of-the-art Research Issues,” were both published in 2012 in the International Journal of Computer Science Issues … Continue reading University recommends retraction of two computing papers for plagiarism
We’ve been keeping track of retracted coronavirus papers, but what about corrections? Here’s a guest post from Richard Jones of Cardiff University about a paper that earned widespread media coverage but turned out to be wrong. According to our best knowledge, this is the first report on COVID-19 infection and death among medical personnel in … Continue reading What it takes to correct the record: Autopsy of a COVID-19 corrigendum
A journal has retracted a 2015 paper because it apparently plagiarized a manuscript submitted two years earlier — but we’re scratching our heads about how it all happened. The paper, “Chattering-free variable structure controller design via fractional calculus approach and its application,” was published in Nonlinear Dynamics and has been cited 15 times, according to … Continue reading A whodunit: Journal retracts paper that copied from an unpublished manuscript