Search Results for: pubpeer

Prominent heart researcher dismissed by Ontario university; colleagues appeal

Earlier this month, Morris Karmazyn, an award-winning cardiovascular researcher who’s published hundreds of papers, was called into a meeting with the office of faculty relations at the University of Western Ontario, and terminated. The reason? A series of image problems in some of his papers, raised by a former member of his lab. When Karmazyn, Canada … Continue reading Prominent heart researcher dismissed by Ontario university; colleagues appeal

Psychological society wants end to posting error-finding algorithm results publicly

A leading psychology research society in Germany has called for the end of PubPeer postings based on a computer program that trawls through psychology papers detecting statistical errors, saying it is needlessly causing reputational damage to researchers. Last month, we reported on an initiative that aimed to clean up the psychology literature by identifying statistical errors using … Continue reading Psychological society wants end to posting error-finding algorithm results publicly

Weekend reads: Why so much research is dodgy; why scientists should shun journals; ethical grey zones

The week at Retraction Watch featured a cancer researcher retracting 19 studies at once from a single journal, and the story of how a 7-year-old came to publish a paper. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Researcher pegged for misconduct in 11 papers earns 2nd retraction

A cancer journal has retracted a paper by a researcher who doctored data in 11 studies, according to a report by the U.S. Office of Research Integrity (ORI). According to an investigation report released by the ORI last year, all 11 studies co-authored by Girija Dasmahapatra, formerly based at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, will … Continue reading Researcher pegged for misconduct in 11 papers earns 2nd retraction

“The results were so perfect” — and now they’re being retracted

Recently, François-Xavier Coudert, a researcher at the Research Institute of Chemistry of Paris in France, noticed something strange: A nearly perfect image in a chemistry paper, with none of the typically expected “noise.” Last week, he started a thread on PubPeer, alerting readers to his concerns — namely, that a microscopy image showed hexagons with … Continue reading “The results were so perfect” — and now they’re being retracted

Authors fix three Diabetes papers flagged for image issues

Researchers have corrected three studies published in the journal Diabetes after users flagged issues with the images on PubPeer. All three papers share a number of authors, including the same last and corresponding author, Aimin Xu, from The University of Hong Kong. Since the corrections appear relatively extensive, we asked the journal if retractions were ever … Continue reading Authors fix three Diabetes papers flagged for image issues

Eighth Voinnet paper retracted — this one from Science

A high-profile plant scientist who has been racking up corrections and retractions at a steady clip has had another paper — this one from Science — retracted. The retraction, of a paper that had been previously corrected, is the eighth for Olivier Voinnet. According to the notice, the correction did not address all the figure problems … Continue reading Eighth Voinnet paper retracted — this one from Science

Cancer researcher earns 5th retraction after misconduct finding

A cancer researcher has logged her fifth retraction following an investigation that concluded she had committed scientific misconduct. We’ve previously reported on four retractions of papers by Stephanie Watkins, a researcher at Loyola Medicine. The previously issued notices — in The Journal of Clinical Investigation and Cancer Research — note that an investigation committee appointed by … Continue reading Cancer researcher earns 5th retraction after misconduct finding

Pfizer fires employee, requests five retractions

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has announced it plans to retract five papers by a former employee, after an investigation found duplicated images. As first reported today by Leonid Schneider, Pfizer has asked to retract five papers from the lab of Min-Jean Yin, a cancer researcher. A spokesperson for the company confirmed to us that Yin had … Continue reading Pfizer fires employee, requests five retractions

Cancer biologist says Nature journal “censored” his News & Views, retracts it

A cancer biologist has retracted a 2016 News & Views article in a Nature journal, alleging that the journal tried to censor his writing by asking him to remove passages that criticized another journal (Cell).  Carlo Croce, the sole author of the article in Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology from Ohio State University in Columbus, described the … Continue reading Cancer biologist says Nature journal “censored” his News & Views, retracts it