Search Results for: duplication

Cancer Cell paper under investigation following anonymous queries on PubPeer

A Cancer Cell paper that caused a flurry of activity on the website PubPeer is under investigation, after the last author announced on the site that he’d requested a correction from the journal. The 2012 paper sparked a lively dialogue last month on the post-publication discussion site, as commenters questioned Western blot images in which … Continue reading Cancer Cell paper under investigation following anonymous queries on PubPeer

Retractions follow misconduct by biologist, one more on the way

Two journals have retracted papers by a biologist at the University of Tokyo who admitted to scientific misconduct, including data duplication and misrepresentation. Another journal is planning to retract one of the researcher’s papers later this month. Hyun Kim studies a protein known as the “ski protein.” However, one analysis of the role of ski protein in development was … Continue reading Retractions follow misconduct by biologist, one more on the way

We have a new record: 80 years from publication to retraction

We have a new record for the longest time from publication to retraction: 80 years. It’s for a case report about a 24-year-old man who died after coughing up more than four cups of what apparently looked — and smelled — like pee. According to the case report titled “Een geval van uroptoë” published in 1923, … Continue reading We have a new record: 80 years from publication to retraction

Korean prosecutors seek jail time for professors in massive plagiarism scheme

SEOUL — In one of the single biggest instances of misconduct we’ve ever come across, prosecutors in South Korea are seeking up to 18 months’ prison time for 75 professors who are among those charged with plagiarizing science and engineering textbooks wholesale. Prosecutors say that since the 1980s, 179 professors at 110 universities across the … Continue reading Korean prosecutors seek jail time for professors in massive plagiarism scheme

Is an increase in retractions good news? Maybe, suggests new study

In Latin America, retractions for plagiarism and other issues have increased markedly — which may be a positive sign that editors and authors are paying closer attention to publishing ethics, according to a small study published in Science and Engineering Ethics. The authors examined two major Latin American/Caribbean databases, which mostly include journals from Brazil, and have been indexing … Continue reading Is an increase in retractions good news? Maybe, suggests new study

Voinnet retracts highly cited paper, bringing his total to 7

Olivier Voinnet, a well-known plant scientist at the ETH in Zurich, has notched his 7th retraction for a highly cited paper. The 2003 paper was pulled when “additional image manipulations” came to light after The Plant Journal issued a correction earlier this year. The retraction follows an investigation into — and then retraction of — several other papers co-authored by Voinnet. The … Continue reading Voinnet retracts highly cited paper, bringing his total to 7

Osteoporosis paper felled by concerns with “scientific integrity”

A paper suggesting that exposure to sunlight might help prevent hip fractures in the elderly has been retracted, due to duplication and “concerns about the underlying data.” An expression of concern that appeared last July flagged the 2005 paper as containing text that matched another paper with the same first author that was published in 2011. According … Continue reading Osteoporosis paper felled by concerns with “scientific integrity”

More retractions, errata discovered for nursing researcher

Since our recent coverage about a university investigation that led to multiple retractions for nursing researcher Moon-fai Chan, we’ve been alerted to a few more retractions and errata. His total is now at six retractions and four errata. Some of our finds were published this year, and some are a few years old. Most are due to duplication; … Continue reading More retractions, errata discovered for nursing researcher

Plagiarism was “not an intentional act,” says first author of retracted TB paper

A 2013 review article about tuberculosis is being retracted for “unacknowledged re-use of significant portions of text” from another article, which the first author said wasn’t intentional. Sayantan Ray, based at Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata in India, told us that “most of the unchanged text” is present in sections written by junior co-authors. Since there doesn’t … Continue reading Plagiarism was “not an intentional act,” says first author of retracted TB paper

University investigating duplicated images in retracted paper

The authors of a Cell Metabolism paper are pulling it after discovering blot images that “appear more than once in independent and unrelated experiments.”  Just how the duplication occurred in the 2009 paper — about transcription of mitochondrial DNA — remains a mystery, the authors note: …the reasons for the errors are still under investigation… Meanwhile, … Continue reading University investigating duplicated images in retracted paper