Stiff sentence for French researcher found guilty of plagiarizing

A French court ruled that Sixou was not guilty of aiding his wife, Christine Marchal-Sixou, in her plagiarizing of a fellow student's work.
A French court ruled that Sixou was not guilty of aiding his wife, Christine Marchal-Sixou, in her plagiarizing of a fellow student’s work.

We have a follow-up from François-Xavier Coudert on the trial of two French odontology researchers accused of stealing from — and abetting the theft of — the work of a graduate student.

A French court has ruled that French dental researcher accused of plagiarizing the thesis of a fellow student was guilty of the charge, but that her husband was not complicit in the crime, according to accounts in the French media.

As we reported the other day, Christine Marchal-Sixou and her lab-head-turned-husband, Michel Sixou, had been on trial for plagiarism and complicity in the case.

The court’s sentence was surprisingly heavy and went beyond what the prosecution sought. Marchal-Sixou received a 5,000 euro fine and ordered to pay 20,000 euros in compensatory damages to the student, Samer Nuwwareh. Continue reading Stiff sentence for French researcher found guilty of plagiarizing

Fourth retraction for chemists in Iran

commnonlinsciWe’ve found a fourth retraction for a group of chemists in Iran who plagiarized.

As before, the offending article had appeared in Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation. This time, however, it did not include a co-author from Ball State University in Indiana, Robert Sammelson, whose name had appeared on three of the earlier papers. Continue reading Fourth retraction for chemists in Iran

Emory cardiology researcher up to six retractions

R. Wayne Alexander, via Emory
R. Wayne Alexander, via Emory

R. Wayne Alexander, a cardiology researcher at Emory whose lab has retracted four papers following university investigations, has notched retractions five and six.

Here’s the notice from Circulation Research: Continue reading Emory cardiology researcher up to six retractions

Tune into CNN today to see Ivan talk about faked HIV vaccine results

Ivan-OranskyNews bulletin: Ivan is scheduled to appear on CNN today with Kyra Phillips to discuss a recent case we covered involving faked results of an HIV vaccine. Details can always change, but as of now the interview will appear at 2:40 p.m. Eastern.

Doing the right thing: Yale psychology lab retracts monkey papers for inaccurate coding

developmental scienceIn the midst of the holiday season, it’s a pleasure to be able to share the story of a scientist doing the right thing at significant professional cost — especially a researcher in psychology, a field that has been battered lately by scandal.

Sometime after publishing two papers — one in Developmental Science and another in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology — Yale’s Laurie Santos and her students realized there were problems with their data. We’ll let Santos — who made sure to respond to our request for comment immediately, in the midst of holiday travel, so that we had all the details and could help get the word out — tell the story: Continue reading Doing the right thing: Yale psychology lab retracts monkey papers for inaccurate coding

“Not suitable in this context” means retraction in pharmacology journal

pbbPharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior had a curious retraction notice in September that we’re just now getting around to, but we think you’ll find it to have been worth the wait.

The article, “Interaction of Somatostatin Receptor-2 and Neuropeptide Y Receptor-1 in mice dorsal root ganglion neurons on the Pinch-Nerve injury model,” came from a group in Harbin, China, and Frieburg, Germany, and was published in April 2013.

According to the notice: Continue reading “Not suitable in this context” means retraction in pharmacology journal

Authorship dispute topples anesthesia paper

anesthessayresearchAn authorship dispute between a pair of Egyptian physicians has led to the retraction of their 2012 article on anesthetic technique for laparoscopic colon surgery.

The article, “General anesthesia versus segmental thoracic or conventional lumbar spinal anesthesia for patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy,” appeared in Anesthesia Essays and Researches — a publication of the Pan Arab Federation of Societies of Anesthesiologists. It written by Gamal Yousef and Ahmed E. Lasheen, both of Zagazig University (which, we’re guessing, would hold the record for institution of higher learning with the most possible points in Scrabble — with a triple word tile that’s at least 131 points, including the seven-letter bonus!).

According to the retraction notice: Continue reading Authorship dispute topples anesthesia paper

Former Iowa State researcher faked HIV vaccine findings: ORI

ori logoA former researcher at Iowa State University (ISU) faked results of experiments to make tests of a vaccine against HIV in animals look more powerful, according to the Office of Research Integrity (ORI).

Specifically, ORI and ISU found that Dong-Pyou Han Continue reading Former Iowa State researcher faked HIV vaccine findings: ORI

Weekend reads: How to be a good peer reviewer, the replication backlash

booksAnother busy week at Retraction Watch. Here’s a taste of scientific publishing news from elsewhere: Continue reading Weekend reads: How to be a good peer reviewer, the replication backlash

None for all, as selfish co-author loses adhesion paper by cutting out colleagues

TASTcover 1..2Authors should stick together, right?

A materials scientist in France has learned that lesson the hard way, having been forced to retract his 2012 paper in the Journal of Adhesion Science and Technology because he neglected to list any of his co-authors.

The paper, “A generalized cure model for one-part room temperature vulcanizing sealants and adhesives,” was written — ostensibly, at least — by François de Buyl, whose LinkedIn page says is a lighting engineer at Dow Corning Europe. (He worked as a materials scientist at Dow prior to that.) de Buyl is the sole author on the paper, which is why we’re reading the following notice from the journal: Continue reading None for all, as selfish co-author loses adhesion paper by cutting out colleagues