Search Results for: compromised peer review

64 more papers retracted for fake reviews, this time from Springer journals

This is officially becoming a trend: Springer is pulling another 64 articles from 10 journals after finding evidence of faked peer reviews, bringing the total number of retractions from the phenomenon north of 230. Given that there have been about 1,500 papers retracted overall since 2012, when we first reported on the phenomenon, faked reviews have been … Continue reading 64 more papers retracted for fake reviews, this time from Springer journals

BMC editors update retraction after investigation clears authors of faking peer reviews

Editors at BioMed Central have taken the unusual step of updating a retraction notice after an investigation found the authors were not responsible for a peer review process gone awry. The paper is one of  dozens of other papers retracted in March for fake peer reviews. That month, the paper “Clinical application of contrast enhanced ultrasound to … Continue reading BMC editors update retraction after investigation clears authors of faking peer reviews

BioMed Central retracting 43 papers for fake peer review

BioMed Central is retracting 43 papers, following their investigation into 50 papers that raised suspicions of fake peer review, possibly involving third-party companies selling the service. In November 2014 we wrote about fake peer reviews for Nature; at that point there had been about 110 retractions across several journals. The addition of 16 retractions by Elsevier for … Continue reading BioMed Central retracting 43 papers for fake peer review

Weekend reads: Tortured reviewers, why failure is good, journals without editors?

This week at Retraction Watch, an explosives paper burned up, and we found that we’re cited in a $8 million lawsuit. Here’s what’s happening elsewhere:

Are companies selling fake peer reviews to help papers get published?

Faked peer reviews — a subject about which we’ve been writing more and more recently — are concerning enough to a number of publishers that they’ve approached the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) to work together on a solution. In the past, we have reported on a number of cases in which authors were able … Continue reading Are companies selling fake peer reviews to help papers get published?

It’s happened again: Researcher appears to have peer reviewed his own paper

Although it shocks some observers every time, we’ve reported on the retractions of more than 100 papers pulled because authors managed to do their own peer review. Apparently, it’s happened again. Here’s a retraction notice in BMC Systems Biology for “Predicting new molecular targets for rhein using network pharmacology,” by  Aihua Zhang, Hui Sun, Bo … Continue reading It’s happened again: Researcher appears to have peer reviewed his own paper

SAGE Publications busts “peer review and citation ring,” 60 papers retracted

This one deserves a “wow.” SAGE Publishers is retracting 60 articles from the Journal of Vibration and Control after an investigation revealed a “peer review and citation ring” involving a professor in Taiwan. [Please see an update on this post.] Here’s the beginning of a statement from SAGE:

Want to make sure your paper gets published? Just do your own peer review like this researcher did

We’ve reported on some pretty impressive cases of researchers doing their own peer review, one of which led to 28 retractions. We have another. Yongdeng Lei, of the School of Geography and Remote Sensing Science at Beijing Normal University, pulled the wool over the eyes of two Springer journals. Here’s the notice from Environmental Management … Continue reading Want to make sure your paper gets published? Just do your own peer review like this researcher did

HIV paper retracted after authors recommend a colleague as a reviewer

Nothing like a little home cooking. Genetic Vaccines and Therapy (GVT) has retracted a paper by a group of Pakistani authors who recommended one of their colleagues as a reviewer for their manuscript. That’s not all: According to the journal, the researchers apparently also misappropriated data from a previous study. The article in question, “Structure … Continue reading HIV paper retracted after authors recommend a colleague as a reviewer

Retraction count grows to 35 for scientist who faked emails to do his own peer review

Hyung-In Moon, the South Korean plant compound researcher who made up email addresses so he could do his own peer review, is now up to 35 retractions. The four new retractions are of the papers in the Journal of Enzyme Inhibition and Medicinal Chemistry that initially led to suspicions when all the reviews came back … Continue reading Retraction count grows to 35 for scientist who faked emails to do his own peer review