Search Results for: Diederik Stapel

“Do we have the will to do anything about it?” James Heathers reflects on the Eysenck case

We have a tension about resolving inaccuracies in scientific documents when they’re past a certain age. Specifically, what should we do with old papers that are shown to be not just wrong, which is a fate that will befall most of them, but seriously misleading, fatally flawed, or overwhelmingly likely to be fabricated, i.e. when they … Continue reading “Do we have the will to do anything about it?” James Heathers reflects on the Eysenck case

Journal expresses a great deal of concern over deceased author’s work

A gastroenterology journal has issued an extensive expression of concern about a 2013 paper by Yoshihiro Sato, a Japanese endocrinologist who has posthumously been climbing the Retraction Watch leaderboard. (He’s now ranked number three, ahead of Diederik Stapel.) To call the statement an “expression of concern” is like calling Charles M. Schulz a talented cartoonist, … Continue reading Journal expresses a great deal of concern over deceased author’s work

University requests 4th retraction for psychologist under fire

The University of Amsterdam has requested another retraction for a prominent social psychologist, after reviewing the dissertations he supervised while at the university. The university made the announcement this week after reviewing the theses supervised by Jens Förster, whose own work has been subject to considerable scrutiny. The results of this investigation come more than … Continue reading University requests 4th retraction for psychologist under fire

It’s not just whistleblowers who deserve protection during misconduct investigations, say researchers

In 2010, the former PhD supervisor of Sven Hendrix, a neuroanatomist at Hasselt University in Belgium, was accused of misconduct. Although the allegations were eventually dropped, the experience was emotionally and professionally draining – and Hendrix wanted the research community to know about it. In 2015, he shared his story at a conference in Rotterdam; … Continue reading It’s not just whistleblowers who deserve protection during misconduct investigations, say researchers

Does social psychology really have a retraction problem?

That’s the question posed by Armin Günther at the Leibniz Institute for Psychology Information in Germany in a recent presentation. There is some evidence to suggest that psychology overall has a problem — the number of retractions has increased four-fold since 1989, and some believe the literature is plagued with errors. Social psychologist Diederik Stapel is number three … Continue reading Does social psychology really have a retraction problem?

Meet one of science publishing’s sentinels: Rolf Degen

To many Retraction Watch readers, the name Rolf Degen will sound very familiar – for the last few years, he’s earned quite a few “hat tips” by alerting us to retraction notices published across a wide range of fields of research, as well as research on trends in science publishing. We spoke to him about … Continue reading Meet one of science publishing’s sentinels: Rolf Degen

Scientific misconduct and sexual harassment: Similar problems with similar solutions?

Today colleges and universities face a crisis of accountability in two domains: scientific misconduct and sexual harassment or assault.  Scientific misconduct and sexual harassment/assault are obviously different, but the way they are reported, handled, and play out have many similarities. Michael Chwe at the University of California in Los Angeles has been thinking about this for … Continue reading Scientific misconduct and sexual harassment: Similar problems with similar solutions?

Weekend reads: What do PhDs earn?; university refuses to release data; collaboration’s dark side

This week at Retraction Watch featured a look at the huge problem of misidentified cell lines, a check-in with a company that retracted a paper as it was about to go public, and Diederik Stapel’s 58th retraction. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Can linguistic patterns identify data cheats?

Cunning science fraudsters may not give many tells in their data, but the text of their papers may be a tipoff to bad behavior. That’s according to a new paper in the Journal of Language and Social Psychology by a pair of linguists at Stanford University who say that the writing style of data cheats … Continue reading Can linguistic patterns identify data cheats?

Weekend reads, part 1: Pirating paywalled papers; a sex scandal and fudged data at Stanford

The week at Retraction Watch featured a lot of movement on our leaderboard, with a new total for Diederik Stapel, and a new entry. It also featured a lot going on elsewhere, so here’s part I of Weekend Reads (we’ll have more tomorrow morning):