Weekend reads: Paying for publication?; deeper looks at citation practices; preprints and retractions

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: ‘I needed a publication in order to submit my thesis’: Author admits to stealing a manuscript Science issues expression of concern nine months after one of its reporters uncovers potential misconduct Publisher cancels special … Continue reading Weekend reads: Paying for publication?; deeper looks at citation practices; preprints and retractions

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

Weekend reads: Weaponizing doubt; pharma’s lawsuit against journal dismissed; ‘misconstrued misinformation’

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: Ivermectin papers slapped with expressions of concern More than 100 of an anesthesiologist’s papers retracted KCL investigation finds misconduct in Lancet Neurology paper Philadelphia-area lung researcher up to six retractions Biotech’s ‘cell squeezing’ technology … Continue reading Weekend reads: Weaponizing doubt; pharma’s lawsuit against journal dismissed; ‘misconstrued misinformation’

Ivermectin papers slapped with expressions of concern

A journal has issued expressions of concern for a pair of 2021 meta-analyses purporting to find that ivermectin is an effective treatment for Covid-19 after data sleuths raised questions about some of the research in the studies.  As we reported last fall, one of the two papers – “Ivermectin for Prevention and Treatment of COVID-19 … Continue reading Ivermectin papers slapped with expressions of concern

Philadelphia-area lung researcher up to six retractions

A lung researcher is up to six retractions for problematic images.  Dilip Shah’s last academic post was at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, N.J., where he worked as a post-doc in the lab of Vineet Bhandari. While there, Shah landed first authorship on a 2020 article in the European Respiratory Journal titled “miR-184 mediates hyperoxia-induced … Continue reading Philadelphia-area lung researcher up to six retractions

Paper overestimated risk of COVID-19 to endangered apes

A Springer Nature journal has retracted a 2021 article with dire news for mountain gorillas in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park about the prospects of extinction on the spikes of SARS-CoV-2 after finding a fatal error in their model of the outbreak.  The article, “Exploring the potential effect of COVID-19 on an endangered great ape,” appeared … Continue reading Paper overestimated risk of COVID-19 to endangered apes

University recommends seven more retractions for psychology researcher

Two years after a psychology researcher in The Netherlands was found guilty of  misconduct, including manipulating data and cutting co-workers out of publications, a new report says she deserves more retractions.  In November 2019, as we reported, Lorenza Colzato was found guilty by an investigation at Leiden University of having failed to obtain ethics ethics … Continue reading University recommends seven more retractions for psychology researcher

Weekend reads: Academia with and without peer review; bogus journals; rector found guilty of misconduct

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: Paper on “suspicious activities” on India-China border retracted ‘[T]he authors plagiarised a large amount of text, but…retractions should not be used as a tool to punish authors’ Court injunction forces gastro journal to slap … Continue reading Weekend reads: Academia with and without peer review; bogus journals; rector found guilty of misconduct

Paper on “suspicious activities” on India-China border retracted

A journal has retracted a 2020 paper about looking for “suspicious activities” on the India-China border — including an incursion in which 20 Indian soldiers were reportedly killed – citing “legal reasons.” The abstract in Springer Nature’s Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing, which alleges that the soldiers were “brutally killed,” is rife … Continue reading Paper on “suspicious activities” on India-China border retracted

‘[T]he authors plagiarised a large amount of text, but…retractions should not be used as a tool to punish authors’

In September 2018, I wrote to the managing editor of FEBS Letters with my concerns about the extensive textual overlap between a 2011 article by Sonia A. Melo and Manel Esteller and other articles, including some that were not cited, such as a 2009 article in the Annual Review of Pathology by Yong Sun Lee … Continue reading ‘[T]he authors plagiarised a large amount of text, but…retractions should not be used as a tool to punish authors’