Weekend reads: 100 fake professors; study on police killings retracted; false data won’t scuttle company buyout

Before we present this week’s Weekend Reads, a question: Do you enjoy our weekly roundup? If so, we could really use your help. Would you consider a tax-deductible donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: The top retractions of 2019; Two retractions and three corrections … Continue reading Weekend reads: 100 fake professors; study on police killings retracted; false data won’t scuttle company buyout

Weekend reads: Stolen identity and peer review; key heart data concealed; psychology’s ‘collective self-deception’

Before we present this week’s Weekend Reads, a question: Do you enjoy our weekly roundup? If so, we could really use your help. Would you consider a tax-deductible donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: The retraction of a paper claiming a link between the … Continue reading Weekend reads: Stolen identity and peer review; key heart data concealed; psychology’s ‘collective self-deception’

Authors retract two studies on high blood pressure and supplements after realizing they’d made a common error

A group of researchers from Iran, Italy and the UK have retracted two meta-analyses on supplements and high blood pressure after making what a statistics expert calls a common error. Both papers were originally published in the Journal of Human Hypertension. Here’s the retraction notice for “Elevated blood pressure reduction after α-lipoic acid supplementation: a … Continue reading Authors retract two studies on high blood pressure and supplements after realizing they’d made a common error

Weekend reads: Leading stem cell researcher’s work under scrutiny; faked drug trial data; troubling China practice snares publisher

Before we present this week’s Weekend Reads, a question: Do you enjoy our weekly roundup? If so, we could really use your help. Would you consider a tax-deductible donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: Researchers suing a journal over a retraction; A publisher retracting … Continue reading Weekend reads: Leading stem cell researcher’s work under scrutiny; faked drug trial data; troubling China practice snares publisher

Psychology researcher committed misconduct, says university

A Dutch university has found a former psychology researcher at the institution guilty of misconduct for several offenses, including lack of ethics approval for some of her studies and fabricating results in grant applications.  In a Nov. 11, 2019, report, officials at the University of Leiden stated that the researcher, whom it does not identify, … Continue reading Psychology researcher committed misconduct, says university

Weekend reads: Disgraced surgeon earns prison sentence; politicians and plagiarism; parents who help their kids cheat

Before we present this week’s Weekend Reads, a question: Do you enjoy our weekly roundup? If so, we could really use your help. Would you consider a tax-deductible donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: A political science professor who is now up to eight … Continue reading Weekend reads: Disgraced surgeon earns prison sentence; politicians and plagiarism; parents who help their kids cheat

Authors “in shock” when image reuse doesn’t fly with publishers of paper on emu oil and stem cells

A team of researchers in Iran has lost a 2018 paper on using emu oil to prepare stem cells because they tried to recycle previously published images. The journal told us that a whistleblower had raised concerns about the article, prompting an involved back-and-forth with the authors and even efforts at accommodation before the eventual … Continue reading Authors “in shock” when image reuse doesn’t fly with publishers of paper on emu oil and stem cells

Andrew Wakefield’s fraudulent paper on vaccines and autism has been cited more than a thousand times. These researchers tried to figure out why.

Retraction Watch readers are no doubt familiar with one of the most consequential retractions of this century, namely that of the 1998 paper in The Lancet by Andrew Wakefield and others claiming a link between vaccines and autism. What they may also know is that the paper remains one of the most highly cited retracted … Continue reading Andrew Wakefield’s fraudulent paper on vaccines and autism has been cited more than a thousand times. These researchers tried to figure out why.

Weekend reads: Falsified authorship; allegations about more than 200 papers; honoring an exploitative scientist

Before we present this week’s Weekend Reads, a question: Do you enjoy our weekly roundup? If so, we could really use your help. Would you consider a tax-deductible donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: The retraction of a 30-year-old paper cited by creationists; A … Continue reading Weekend reads: Falsified authorship; allegations about more than 200 papers; honoring an exploitative scientist

Reviewers asked authors to change their study design. It apparently didn’t go well.

In what the editor of a psychiatry journal says in an unusual case, the authors of a paper on treatments for depression have retracted it after being alerted to “inconsistencies” stemming from a change to their study design that the peer reviewers had requested.  Here’s the retraction notice, in The Journal of Nervous and Mental … Continue reading Reviewers asked authors to change their study design. It apparently didn’t go well.