Search Results for: authorship

Vacuum force researcher retracts paper that failed to name collaborators

Science doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Even vacuum science. The International Journal of Modern Physics A has retracted a 2011 paper by a physicist who failed to acknowledge the contributions — instrumental, it seems — of his collaborators. The paper, “Measurement of the Casimir Interaction Between a au Sphere and au Gratings” [au in this … Continue reading Vacuum force researcher retracts paper that failed to name collaborators

Authors’ public dispute over retraction notice in Cytokine ends in a draw, bruises journal

Cytokine had an interesting retraction notice this year that points up the pitfalls — perhaps necessary, perhaps not — that journals can step in when they give authors the benefit of the doubt. Here’s the story: A doctoral student named Varun Kesherwani was working in the lab of Ajit Sodhi, a U.S.-trained and well-published cell biologist … Continue reading Authors’ public dispute over retraction notice in Cytokine ends in a draw, bruises journal

Surgery journal retracts cancer paper for duplication after “naive” response from authors

The Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England has an informative retraction notice about a recent paper it published that was marred by self-plagiarism. The article, “Current concepts of surveillance and its significance in head and neck cancer,” from a group of researchers at Grant Medical College, in Mumbai (which is known to … Continue reading Surgery journal retracts cancer paper for duplication after “naive” response from authors

A retracted periodontitis-heart disease paper that didn’t make it into the new AHA review

On Wednesday, the American Heart Association announced something that those of us who’d been reading the medical literature carefully had known for a while: Bad gums do not cause heart disease. Periodontitis is linked to bad heart disease, you see, as studies have shown, and periodontists have sure been using this as an excuse to … Continue reading A retracted periodontitis-heart disease paper that didn’t make it into the new AHA review

We’re mostly wrong, but trust us: Our column on mega-corrections for Lab Times

Have you seen this correction, from the September 8, 2011 issue of Nature, for “Tumour vascularization via endothelial differentiation of glioblastoma stem-like cells?” The figures and Supplementary figures of this Letter are affected by errors and improper editing. The correct figures are now provided, with an explanation of the variations. The original Letter has not … Continue reading We’re mostly wrong, but trust us: Our column on mega-corrections for Lab Times

Not so fast! Journal retracts paper from Boldt group over author hijinks, more

We knew we hadn’t heard the last of Joachim Boldt, whose nearly 90 retractions make him the putative record holder for a single author in this indistinguished club. But we didn’t expect this: The European Journal of Anaesthesiology has retracted a paper, “Supplemental oxygen reduces serotonin levels in plasma and platelets during colorectal surgery and … Continue reading Not so fast! Journal retracts paper from Boldt group over author hijinks, more

A tsunami of plagiarism in Serbia, but hardly any retractions

Today, we have the pleasure of presenting a guest post from Mico Tatalovic, who wrote in October aboutretractions in journals in his home country, Croatia. Here, he describes what appears to be an alarming rate of plagiarism in Serbian journals. A report for the Serbian science ministry by the Centre for Evaluation in Education and Science … Continue reading A tsunami of plagiarism in Serbia, but hardly any retractions

Physics retraction as rogue authors add six colleagues to a paper they didn’t write

Forged authorship — in which researchers add the names of people who’ve had nothing to do with a paper, either to boost its chance of being published, pay tribute (in a misguided way), or both — has become a common theme at Retraction Watch. But we’re pretty sure we haven’t seen a case involving as … Continue reading Physics retraction as rogue authors add six colleagues to a paper they didn’t write

Retracted retraction leaves Genomics paper intact — but authors wonder if anyone will know

Last March, the journal Genomics retracted a paper, “Discovery of transcriptional regulators and signaling pathways in the developing pituitary gland by bioinformatic and genomic approaches,” for reasons that don’t really fit into a tight lede sentence. Let’s just say that at times the problems involved both questions of authorship and the validity of the research. More … Continue reading Retracted retraction leaves Genomics paper intact — but authors wonder if anyone will know

National University of Singapore official who co-authored Melendez papers won’t be part of investigation

The Alirio Melendez case is likely to become quite complicated, as the National University of Singapore (NUS) looks into about 70 papers by the researcher whose work has already been the subject of a retraction and Expression of Concern. One such wrinkle seemed to have already surfaced when a blog called the Gigamole Diaries pointed out last week … Continue reading National University of Singapore official who co-authored Melendez papers won’t be part of investigation