‘Nonsensical content’: Springer Nature journal breaks up with a paper on a love story

You can love math, but can you math love?  Scientific Reports has retracted a 2023 paper that tried to do just that by imposing a numerical model onto an ancient Persian love story that may have influenced Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.  The paper, “A fractional order nonlinear model of the love story of Layla and … Continue reading ‘Nonsensical content’: Springer Nature journal breaks up with a paper on a love story

Neri Oxman accused of lifting from article whose plagiarism led to downfall of concussion expert

Neri Oxman’s problems may be getting worse. The researcher, who has become embroiled in plagiarism accusations following her billionaire husband’s push to depose the president of Harvard for plagiarizing in her thesis, appears to have lifted about 100 words in her thesis from an article that has been plagiarized before. Last week, Business Insider reported … Continue reading Neri Oxman accused of lifting from article whose plagiarism led to downfall of concussion expert

Weekend reads: A Nobelist earns an expression of concern; India’s fake universities; shaking things up in psychology

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? The week at Retraction Watch featured: Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to well over 350. There are more than 43,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains well over … Continue reading Weekend reads: A Nobelist earns an expression of concern; India’s fake universities; shaking things up in psychology

Weekend reads: ‘The band of debunkers’; a superconductor retraction request; ‘the banality of bad-faith science’

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? The week at Retraction Watch featured: We also added The Retraction Watch Mass Resignations List. Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to well over 350. There are more than 43,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. … Continue reading Weekend reads: ‘The band of debunkers’; a superconductor retraction request; ‘the banality of bad-faith science’

Weekend reads: ChatGPT in papers; a Russia-based paper mill; getting scooped becomes an opportunity

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? The week at Retraction Watch featured: Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to well over 350. There are now well over 42,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which powers retraction alerts in Edifix, EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains 200 … Continue reading Weekend reads: ChatGPT in papers; a Russia-based paper mill; getting scooped becomes an opportunity

Paper that found ‘climate crisis’ to be ‘not evident yet’ retracted after re-review

An article published last January in a physics journal attracted attention for its conclusion that–contrary to mainstream climate science–extreme weather events have not become more intense or more frequent as the temperature of the earth’s surface has increased.  Now, the journal’s editors have retracted the article after a post-publication review found “that the conclusions of … Continue reading Paper that found ‘climate crisis’ to be ‘not evident yet’ retracted after re-review

Weekend reads: The black market for papers; the secret life of retractions; a ‘troublesome pattern’

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? The week at Retraction Watch featured: Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to nearly 350. There are now 41,000 retractions in our database — which powers retraction alerts in Edifix, EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains 200 titles. And have you seen … Continue reading Weekend reads: The black market for papers; the secret life of retractions; a ‘troublesome pattern’

‘Shocked and flabbergasted’: Journal updates duplicate article it had said was “sufficiently” different from original

A journal for conference proceedings which published a duplicate article has updated the later version, after originally telling the researcher who noticed the duplication that the articles were different enough to warrant publishing both.   The article, titled “Production and storage of polarized H2, D2, and HD molecules,” was published twice in the journal Proceedings of … Continue reading ‘Shocked and flabbergasted’: Journal updates duplicate article it had said was “sufficiently” different from original

“Flagrant and frankly, inexcusable” data duplication leads to retraction

A biochemistry study has been retracted nearly a year after a whistleblower found significant overlap between the article and one published in a different journal by the same research group. The study, “Berberine ameliorates renal injury in diabetic C57BL/6 mice: Involvement of suppression of SphK–S1P signaling pathway,” appeared in the journal Archives of Biochemistry and … Continue reading “Flagrant and frankly, inexcusable” data duplication leads to retraction

Wiley and Hindawi to retract 1,200 more papers for compromised peer review

Hindawi and Wiley, its parent company, have identified approximately 1,200 articles with compromised peer review that the publishers will begin retracting this month.  Jay Flynn, executive vice president and general manager of the research division at Wiley, which acquired Hindawi in 2021, wrote about the forthcoming retractions in a blog post at Scholarly Kitchen yesterday. … Continue reading Wiley and Hindawi to retract 1,200 more papers for compromised peer review