‘I never asked or expected to be included as an author’: Retired Penn State prof has three retractions for manipulated peer review

A retired professor of education has lost three papers – which he said he helped edit for a former student – after the publisher discovered manipulated peer review led to their acceptance.  Roger Shouse, an associate professor emeritus at Penn State College of Education, spent the 2018-2019 academic year at Sichuan University in China as … Continue reading ‘I never asked or expected to be included as an author’: Retired Penn State prof has three retractions for manipulated peer review

Weekend reads, double edition: Science’s ‘nasty Photoshopping problem’; Dr. Oz’s publication ban; image manipulation detection software

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. This week, it’s a special double edition of Weekend Reads, thanks to a site outage that meant we couldn’t post last Saturday. The last two weeks at Retraction Watch featured: Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 267. … Continue reading Weekend reads, double edition: Science’s ‘nasty Photoshopping problem’; Dr. Oz’s publication ban; image manipulation detection software

White House official banned from publishing in PNAS following retraction

Jane Lubchenco, the deputy director for climate and environment in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, has been banned from publishing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and from other NAS activities for five years. The move, first reported by Axios, comes ten months after PNAS retracted a … Continue reading White House official banned from publishing in PNAS following retraction

Weekend reads: Retracted COVID-19 papers keep being cited; “‘difficult’ name penalty”; economist accused of plagiarism

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: The Lancet more than doubles its impact factor, eclipsing NEJM for the first time ever Author demands a refund after his paper is retracted for plagiarism Seven months after an author request, journal retracts February: … Continue reading Weekend reads: Retracted COVID-19 papers keep being cited; “‘difficult’ name penalty”; economist accused of plagiarism

Weekend reads: An academic and a Russian spy; concussion expert resigns from committee; publishing peer reviews

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: Sports medicine researcher Paul McCrory requests another retraction Journal editor explains ban on manuscripts from Russian institutions NASA researchers retract Nature paper on climate change and evapotranspiration Was leading sports medicine researcher’s plagiarism ‘an … Continue reading Weekend reads: An academic and a Russian spy; concussion expert resigns from committee; publishing peer reviews

Weekend reads: ‘Published crap;’ randomized grant awards; ‘Problems in Science Publishing’

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: How to find evidence of paper mills using peer review comments Journal retracts a paper it published with a missing table after author fails to provide it Which takes longer to produce: An infant … Continue reading Weekend reads: ‘Published crap;’ randomized grant awards; ‘Problems in Science Publishing’

Science issues expression of concern nine months after one of its reporters uncovers potential misconduct

Science has issued an expression of concern for a 2014 paper on the harmful effects of ocean acidification on fish and coral after the first author of the article was accused of fabricating data in the study and other research. The article, “Chemically mediated behavior of recruiting corals and fishes: A tipping point that may … Continue reading Science issues expression of concern nine months after one of its reporters uncovers potential misconduct

Exclusive: How a researcher faked data and gaslit a labmate for years

Sometime in early 2019, a postdoc in a veterinary microbiology lab at Washington State University (WSU) in Pullman came to suspect that a research assistant in her lab was fabricating data. The postdoc had noticed that the research assistant’s experiments always produced positive results, while hers were always negative. And the experiments she performed with … Continue reading Exclusive: How a researcher faked data and gaslit a labmate for years

Leading marine ecologist, now White House official, violated prominent journal’s policies in handling now-retracted paper

A marine ecologist at Oregon State University now helping lead the Biden White House’s climate and environmental initiatives violated the conflict of interest policy at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences when she edited a paper in the journal last year. Jane Lubchenco, who served as administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric … Continue reading Leading marine ecologist, now White House official, violated prominent journal’s policies in handling now-retracted paper

Criticism engulfs paper claiming an asteroid destroyed Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah

Scientific Reports is taking heat on social media and from data sleuths for publishing a paper implying that the Biblical story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah might have been the retelling of the devastation wrought by an exploding asteroid in or around the year 1,650 BCE.  To the lay reader — and to … Continue reading Criticism engulfs paper claiming an asteroid destroyed Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah