Article Types Description Article in Press Items published before assignment to an journal issue Auto/Biography About a person, author by the person or another Book Chapter/Reference Work Section from a non-periodical published work, or the entire non-periodical published work Case Report Article describing the signs, symptoms, diagnosis and resolution of a single or very limited … Continue reading Retraction Watch Database User Guide Appendix C: Article Types
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 look at authors who publish once every five days, … Continue reading Weekend reads: Top researchers resign over publishing issues; organized crime meets publishing; infamous fraudster rides in on a horse
A former postdoc at the U.S. VA Health Care System in Albuquerque, N.M., committed misconduct in three papers, the agency announced today. Alba Chavez-Dozal, who studied the basic science underpinnings of infectious diseases, had three papers retracted between 2015 and 2016. In findings dated July 18, 2018, but released today, the VA said that Chavez-Dozal, … Continue reading Former VA postdoc committed misconduct, banned from agency research for four years
The journal Scientifica has retracted a 2016 paper on gut disease in turkeys for a rafter of sins including plagiarism and authors plucked out of thin air. The article, “Role of wheat based diet on the pathology of necrotic enteritis in turkeys,” was purportedly written by a team from Pakistan and France. But it turns … Continue reading Gluten-free turkeys? Paper on dangers of wheat-based diet in birds retracted
Is open peer review the future? The EMBO Journal has offered it since 2009. eLife offers it. They’re not alone, although they’re still in the minority (a fact Irene Hames wishes would change). Elsevier, one of the world’s largest publishers, has tried a pilot of it, too, so we thought it would be worth finding … Continue reading What happened when Elsevier tried open peer review? And which field says “no, thanks?”
In 2015, a group of researchers based in Spain decided to write a review article on high blood pressure. But when they looked over eight articles co-authored by the same person, they noticed some undeniable similarities. Over the last few years, Giuseppe Derosa, based at the University of Pavia in Italy, has racked up 10 … Continue reading A distorted record on blood pressure drugs: Why one group is trying to clean up the literature
In 2012, investigations found that researcher Yoshitaka Fujii had fabricated well in excess of 100 papers, and recommended scores of retractions. Yet years later, publishers are still cleaning the literature of his problematic work. For anyone not familiar the Fujii case: After researchers raised concerns about Fujii’s work, an anesthesiologist used statistical tools to … Continue reading What took more than five years? Elsevier retracts 20 papers by world’s most prolific fraudster
An editor thought she did a great job running an anesthesiology journal. But her colleagues— including the new editor who took over for her—heartily disagree. During her tenure at the journal, the outgoing editor penned an editorial taking credit for the journal’s rise to success. But, according to a new commentary published in the journal, … Continue reading Infighting at journal prompts retraction of editorial “full of misinformation”
Decades ago, unbeknownst to each other, two chemists were independently working on a screening approach to identify new potential drugs. Both published papers about the technique around the same time. So now, when scientists write papers that cite the technique, who should get credit for discovering it? Decades later, that question still hasn’t been answered … Continue reading Chemists duke it out over who was first to discover a 30-year-old technique
Here’s something we don’t see that often — authors retracting one of their articles because it included new data. But that is the case with a 2017 review exploring the potential genetic and hormonal underpinnings of gender identity. The authors Rosa Fernández García and Eduardo Pásaro Mendez told Retraction Watch that they asked bioethics journal … Continue reading Whoops: Authors didn’t mean to include new data in article about transgender identity