A 2002 paper has been retracted by Cancer after some of the authors notified the journal that they hadn’t agreed to submit it — and an investigation found that a number of the patients described had been made up. Here’s the notice for “Radioimmunotherapy of small-volume disease of metastatic colorectal cancer: results of a phase II … Continue reading Study by deceased award-winning cancer researcher retracted because some patients were “invented”
A fight over a paper posted on preprint server arXiv.org has divided two mathematicians. The authors initially posted the paper, which looks at the mathematical properties of spheres, in 2013. And that’s when the trouble started. Apparently, after submitting the paper to a journal and receiving reviewer feedback, co-authors Fabio Tal at the University of … Continue reading “Irreconcilable difference of opinion” divides math preprint
Researcher Alison Abritis earned her Ph.D. in Public Health, with a concentration in toxicology and risk assessment. Her dissertation focused on retractions and corrections, or the lack thereof, arising from misconduct findings by the Office of Research Integrity (ORI). She found that less than half of the findings resulted in a published retraction or correction, and even fewer … Continue reading Meet the Retraction Watch staff
Swiss researchers have retracted an abstract in Clinical Neurophysiology because only one of them actually knew about the paper — and what he submitted had “several mistakes.” The abstract, about electric impulses in the brain of comatose patients, originally appeared as a poster at the June 2014 joint meeting of multiple Swiss neuroscience societies. It was submitted by first author Alexandre … Continue reading Neuro journal pulls comatose brain abstract due to “several mistakes”
We should probably launch a new blog just on the euphemisms used for plagiarism. A case of “inadequate procedural or methodological practices of citation or quotation” causing an “unacceptable level of text parallels” has sunk a review paper, but not a thesis, for a PhD who studied memory consolidation at Maynooth University in Ireland. According … Continue reading “Unacceptable level of text parallels” loses neuroscientist a paper, but not her PhD
Two researchers who already had three expressions of concern under their belts have five more, plus a retraction. Kelly Wiggins and Christopher Bielawski share authorship on all the papers in question. After the first set of EoCs, Bielawski, at the time a PI at UT Austin, told Chemistry and Engineering News that a “former lab member” had admitted to … Continue reading Chemists Bielawski and Wiggins up to eight expressions of concern, one retraction
Ariel Fernandez‘s list of papers with editorial asterisks next to them grew again this week. Fernandez has had one paper retracted, two papers subject to Expressions of Concern, including one from Nature, and another put on hold over data concerns. He threatened to sue us for covering one of the Expressions of Concern. Here’s the “Notice … Continue reading PLOS Genetics investigating paper by Ariel Fernandez
A group of scientists at Takeda Pharmaceutical, including vice president Yoshinori Ikeura, has lost a paper after realizing that their “novel” compound had been previously synthesized by another Takeda researcher. The 2011 paper, published in Elsevier journal Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry, was the subject of a 2012 corrigendum adding two authors to the paper. The retraction appeared online … Continue reading Takeda group retracts paper after realizing “novel” compound had already been synthesized…by a colleague
A paper in Food Chemistry suggesting cranberry extract has healing properties was retracted after some of the authors complained they had no idea the paper was being published. Here’s the notice for “Phenolic composition, antioxidant properties, and endothelial cell function of red and white cranberry fruits:”
Faked peer reviews — a subject about which we’ve been writing more and more recently — are concerning enough to a number of publishers that they’ve approached the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) to work together on a solution. In the past, we have reported on a number of cases in which authors were able … Continue reading Are companies selling fake peer reviews to help papers get published?