Two months after Harvard and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital said they were requesting the retraction of more than 30 papers from a former cardiac stem cell lab there, two American Heart Association journals have retracted more than a dozen papers from the lab. Yesterday, Circulation retracted three papers, and Circulation Research retracted 10. All 13 were … Continue reading Anversa cardiac stem cell lab earns 13 retractions
Before we present this week’s Weekend Reads, a question: Do you enjoy our weekly roundup? If so, we could really use your help. Would you consider a tax-deductible donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured a dental researcher who is up to 18 pulled papers; … Continue reading Weekend reads: Is science self-correcting?; peer review’s “undue emotional burdens;” retractions at Science
What can studying retractions in business and management journals tell us? Earlier this year, Dennis Tourish, of the University of Sussex, and Russell Craig, of the University of Portsmouth, both in the UK, published a paper in the Journal of Management Inquiry that analyzed 131 such retractions. The duo — who were also two of … Continue reading Legal threats, opacity, and deceptive research practices: A look at more than 100 retractions in business and management
More than four and a half years after questions were first raised about work in a cardiac stem cell lab at Harvard and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a year and a half after the Brigham and Partners Healthcare paid $10 million to settle allegations of fraud in the lab’s data, a month after Harvard … Continue reading Journals stamp expressions of concern on 15 papers from Anversa’s cardiac stem cell lab
Pro-tip for journals and publishers: When you decide to publish a paper about a subject — say, diets — that you know will draw a great deal of scrutiny from vocal proponents of alternatives, make sure it’s as close to airtight as possible. And in the event that the paper turns out not to be … Continue reading A convicted felon writes a paper on hotly debated diets. What could go wrong?
Yesterday, Cornell University told a group of researchers who had petitioned them to release a report of their investigation into alleged misconduct by Brian Wansink, a food marketing researcher who recently resigned his post there, that they would not release that report. As BuzzFeed reports, the university is now conducting a “Phase II” investigation into … Continue reading It’s time to end the code of silence at universities
Before we present this week’s Weekend Reads, a question: Do you enjoy our weekly roundup? If so, we could really use your help. Would you consider a tax-deductible donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured the story of how an editor solved a mystery about … Continue reading Weekend reads: Stem cell trial halted; Nazi doctors in the literature; is it OK to cite a paper you haven’t read?
Caveat scriptor—writer beware. That’s the moral of a recent editorial in the Saudi Journal of Anesthesia, prompted by the retraction in that journal of a 2014 paper with bum data. The editorial was written by John Loadsman, an anesthesiologist in Sydney, Australia, and editor of the journal Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, who played a role … Continue reading Caveat scriptor: How a journal editor unraveled the mystery of the overlapping bad data
The Retraction Watch Leaderboard of authors with the most retractions is a frequent source of comment and speculation. Why do only men appear on it? And what fields and countries are represented? Here, Iekuni Ichikawa, Project Professor at Shinshu University and Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University, as well as a co-founder of the Association for … Continue reading When researchers from a particular country dominate retraction statistics, what does it mean?
Reason Description Author Unresponsive Author(s) lack of communication after prior contact by Journal, Publisher or other original Authors Bias Issues or Lack of Balance Failure to maintain objectivity in the presentation or analysis of information Breach of Policy by Author A violation of the Journal, Publisher or Institutional accepted practices by the author Breach of … Continue reading Retraction Watch Database User Guide Appendix B: Reasons