Sometimes, you just gotta retract.
Here’s the retraction notice for “Outcome of short proximal femoral nail antirotation and dynamic hip screw for fixation of unstable trochanteric fractures. A randomised prospective comparative trial,” originally published in Hip International in 2011 by a group of researchers at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi: Continue reading Hip, hip, hooray! Hip journal retracts paper that had, well, everything wrong with it
Back in March, we wrote about the doubts that had emerged in Spain about the work of a prominent local veterinary scientist, Jesús Ángel Lemus, suspected of being a data fabricator and inventor of co-authors (one in particular).
We hadn’t heard anything since about Lemus — who specialized in the effects of environmental toxins on birds — until now.
The Proceedings of the Royal Society B has retracted a 2009 paper by Lemus and a (legitimate) c0-author, Guillermo Blanco, of the National Museum of Natural History, and issued an expression of concern about another article on which both men appeared.
The retracted paper, “Cellular and humoral immunodepression in vultures feeding upon medicated livestock carrion,” has been cited seven times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge, and purported to find that: Continue reading Carrion, my wayward son: Vulture paper from Spanish researcher suspected of misconduct retracted
The journal Haematologica has retracted two papers by José Román-Gómez, both of which involve image manipulation, bringing his total to four.
Here’s the first notice, for a 2007 article titled “Epigenetic regulation of human cancer/testis antigen gene, HAGE, in chronic myeloid leukemia” that has been cited 20 times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge: Continue reading Two more retractions for Spanish leukemia researcher Román-Gómez
Well, it only took 17 years.
As two retraction notices in the September 15 issue of the Journal of Immunology note:
On October 19, 1995, the Office of Research Integrity at the National Institutes of Health found that Weishu Y. Weiser, Ph.D., formerly of the Harvard Medical School at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, committed scientific misconduct by falsifying data in biomedical research supported by two Public Health Service grants. As a result, she agreed to submit a letter to The Journal of Immunology to retract this article. The offices of The Journal of Immunology have no record of receiving such a letter and hence the article is now being retracted.
The retractions, for “Recombinant Migration Inhibitory Factor Induces Nitric Oxide Synthase in Murine Macrophages” and “Human Recombinant Migration Inhibitory Factor Activates Human Macrophages to Kill Leishmania donovani,” both say the same thing.
“Recombinant Migration Inhibitory Factor Induces Nitric Oxide Synthase in Murine Macrophages” has been cited 66 times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge — 40 of those times since the ORI’s report was released. The numbers for the Leishmania paper are almost identical: Continue reading ORI findings lead to two retractions — nearly 17 years later
A new retraction — his fifth — in the Journal of Immunology for Alirio Melendez, formerly of the National University of Singapore, the University of Glasgow, and the University of Liverpool, sheds some light on the results of an investigation by one of the universities.
Last month, a Glasgow spokesperson told Nature that the university’s investigation had been completed in October 2011, but that it did not comment on individual cases. A spokesperson, according to the Times Higher Education:
…would say only that there was “no evidence that our current staff contributed, falsified or duplicated data to any publications co-authored with (Professor) Melendez”. He also confirmed that relevant journals would be contacted where retractions or corrections were deemed necessary.
The notice for one such necessary retraction, in the September 15 issue of the Journal of Immunology, gives a few details: Continue reading Fifth Alirio Melendez retraction offers clues about University of Glasgow misconduct findings
The Journal of Systems Architecture has retracted a 2010 article by a group of researchers in China who tried to publish their work twice.
The paper first appeared in July 2010 in the Journal of Software under the title, “Description and Verification of Dynamic Software Architectures for Distributed Systems.” At the time, it had three authors — Xu Hongzhen, Zeng Guosun and Bo Chen.
But Xu and Zeng evidently resubmitted the paper to the Journal of Systems Architecture, which published its version, “Specification and verification of dynamic evolution of software architectures,” in October 2010.
As the notice explains: Continue reading Comp sci journal retracts paper for overlap
We have four more retractions by Dipak Das, the disgraced UConn researcher found by the university to have committed 145 counts of misconduct. All appear in the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology (we left the journal off when we initially posted, as commenters noted):
“Redox regulation of angiotensin II preconditioning of the myocardium requires MAP kinase signaling,” cited 28 times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge:
Continue reading Retraction count for Dipak Das rises to 17
Protein & Peptide Letters, a Bentham title, has retracted a paper for plagiarism, but it’s the unhelpful — bordering on insulting — notice that caught our eye.
The abstract for the notice, the rest of which sits behind a $63.10 (plus tax) pay wall on Ingenta Connect, reads:
As per Bentham Science’s policy, the following article has been retracted at the request of the Editor-in-Chief and its Authors published in `Protein & Peptide Letters“ due to their use of text obtained from another paper published in the Biochemical Journal.
Oh, my. Where to begin…
Continue reading Protein journal retracts mystery paper that plagiarized phantom article
A Korean cardiology journal has retracted a 2011 review article because it “seriously” plagiarized a 2009 paper in another journal.
Here’s the notice, which is dated May 24, 2012 but just came to our attention, thanks to a post by Marilyn Mann: Continue reading Korean cardiology journal retracts one paper for plagiarism, and another for duplication
The Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow, Scotland is looking into how inappropriate images ended up in a Cell paper that has just been retracted.
Here’s the notice for the paper by Lynne Marshall, Niall S. Kenneth, and Robert J. White: Continue reading Glasgow’s Beatson Institute investigating circumstances of Cell retraction for inappropriate images