It’s been another busy week at Retraction Watch, mostly because of the unfolding Jens Förster story. Here’s what was happening elsewhere on the web: Continue reading Weekend reads: Retraction Watch on NPR; “hysteria” over replication; when a paywall might be a good thing
Chemists lose JACS silicone paper over data dispute
A pair of chemists at Ball State University in Indiana has lost their paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society on silicone in a dispute over the provenance of the data.
The article, “Silicone Electrosynthesis from Silica Raw Materials at Room Temperature,” was written by Jeffrey E. Dick, a grad student, and Daesung Chong. It appeared in JACS in March.
As the abstract explained: Continue reading Chemists lose JACS silicone paper over data dispute
Robot paper retracted for stealing from doctoral thesis
The authors of a paper in the International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems have lost it after it became clear that they’d lifted most of it from a PhD thesis.
Here’s the notice: Continue reading Robot paper retracted for stealing from doctoral thesis
“Potential error” leads to Expression of Concern for macaque paper
The Journal of Anatomy has expressed concern about a 2011 paper on primate jaws.
The article, “The mechanical function of the periodontal ligament in the macaque mandible: a validation and sensitivity study using finite element analysis,” by a group from the University of York, in the United Kingdom, purported to find that:
Continue reading “Potential error” leads to Expression of Concern for macaque paper
Plagiarism (and plenty of it) fells Crohn’s paper
A group of researchers from Italy has lost their 2010 paper in the Journal of Cellular Physiology for having plagiarized — in style.
The article, “Early Years of Biological Agents Therapy in Crohn’s Disease and Risk of the Human Polyomavirus JC Reactivation,” was led by Valeria Pietropaolo, of Sapienza University in Rome and the Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia.
The paper has been cited 10 times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge. The abstract, which is still available, reads:
Continue reading Plagiarism (and plenty of it) fells Crohn’s paper
Anatomy of an inquiry: The report that led to the Jens Förster investigation
We have obtained a copy of the report that led to the investigation of Jens Förster, the social psychologist at the University of Amsterdam, which is calling for the retraction of a 2012 article by the researcher for manipulated data.
As we reported earlier, Förster has denied any wrongdoing in the matter.
Continue reading Anatomy of an inquiry: The report that led to the Jens Förster investigation
Social psychologist Förster denies misconduct, calls charge “terrible misjudgment”
Retraction Watch has obtained an email from Jens Förster, the social psychologist in the Netherlands who, as Dutch media reported this week, was the target of a misconduct investigation at the University of Amsterdam. The inquiry led to the call for the retraction of a paper by Förster and a colleague, Markus Denzler, over concerns of data manipulation.
Förster denies those claims and said Denzler was not involved in the heavy lifting for the study in question: Continue reading Social psychologist Förster denies misconduct, calls charge “terrible misjudgment”
Florida leadership researcher Walumbwa notches sixth retraction
In February we reported on the case of Fred Walumbwa, a leadership scholar at Florida International University who was poised to lose five papers in the Leadership Quarterly for reasons not entirely clear but which appeared to involve problems with the data.
Now we see a sixth retraction for Walumbwa, this one in the Journal of Organizational Behavior. The article, titled (ironically enough), “Authentically leading groups: The mediating role of collective psychological capital and trust,” had appeared in September 2009. Per the abstract:
Continue reading Florida leadership researcher Walumbwa notches sixth retraction
New Dutch psychology scandal? Inquiry cites data manipulation, calls for retraction
The University of Amsterdam has called for the retraction of a 2011 paper by two psychology researchers after a school investigation concluded that the article contained bogus data, the Dutch press are reporting.
The paper, “Sense Creative! The Impact of Global and Local Vision, Hearing, Touching, Tasting and Smelling on Creative and Analytic Thought,” was written by Jens Förster and Markus Denzler and published in Social Psychological & Personality Science. It purported to find that:
Continue reading New Dutch psychology scandal? Inquiry cites data manipulation, calls for retraction
Contaminated cells force retraction of Blood paper
Blood has an interesting retraction of a 2011 paper on what a group of authors claimed was a new cell line — but which proved, apparently, to be a chimera.
The article, “Oxygen-regulated expression of the erythropoietin gene in the human renal cell line REPC,” came from a team at Universität Duisburg-Essen, in Germany, and has been cited 21 times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge. Here’s the abstract: Continue reading Contaminated cells force retraction of Blood paper