Authors fix three Diabetes papers flagged for image issues

Researchers have corrected three studies published in the journal Diabetes after users flagged issues with the images on PubPeer. All three papers share a number of authors, including the same last and corresponding author, Aimin Xu, from The University of Hong Kong. Since the corrections appear relatively extensive, we asked the journal if retractions were ever … Continue reading Authors fix three Diabetes papers flagged for image issues

Gov’t researchers lose three papers for data doctoring

A researcher in New Mexico has retracted three papers tainted by fraud. Lead author Samuel Lee, who works at the New Mexico Veterans Affairs (VA) Healthcare System and the University of New Mexico (UNM), requested Eukaryotic Cell retract two papers after identifying multiple instances of fabricated or falsified data. He requested the retraction of a review article based … Continue reading Gov’t researchers lose three papers for data doctoring

Pfizer fires employee, requests five retractions

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has announced it plans to retract five papers by a former employee, after an investigation found duplicated images. As first reported today by Leonid Schneider, Pfizer has asked to retract five papers from the lab of Min-Jean Yin, a cancer researcher. A spokesperson for the company confirmed to us that Yin had … Continue reading Pfizer fires employee, requests five retractions

Cancer biologist says Nature journal “censored” his News & Views, retracts it

A cancer biologist has retracted a 2016 News & Views article in a Nature journal, alleging that the journal tried to censor his writing by asking him to remove passages that criticized another journal (Cell).  Carlo Croce, the sole author of the article in Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology from Ohio State University in Columbus, described the … Continue reading Cancer biologist says Nature journal “censored” his News & Views, retracts it

German university recommends that six papers be retracted following probe

The University of Cologne has conducted an investigation into the research of Tina Wenz, and determined that six papers should be pulled due to scientific misconduct. In a release issued last week (as first reported by Leonid Schneider), the university lists six papers that “present scientific misconduct,” according to our Google Translate. One of the six … Continue reading German university recommends that six papers be retracted following probe

1st retraction for researcher who lost whistleblower lawsuit

A researcher who was dismissed from Wayne State University — then lost a whistleblower lawsuit against it — has logged his first retraction. In 2012, after Christian Kreipke was dismissed from Wayne State, he filed a lawsuit, alleging that the institution had defrauded the U.S. government of $169 million in research funding. A judge dismissed the case in 2014, … Continue reading 1st retraction for researcher who lost whistleblower lawsuit

Author asks to retract nearly 20-year old paper over figure questions, lack of data

The last author of a 1999 paper has asked the journal to retract it less than one month after a user raised questions about images on PubPeer. Yesterday, last author Jim Woodgett posted a note on the site saying the author who generated the figures in question could not find the original data, and since … Continue reading Author asks to retract nearly 20-year old paper over figure questions, lack of data

Amid controversial Sarepta approval decision, FDA head calls for key study retraction

The head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has called for the retraction of a study about a drug that the agency itself approved earlier this week, despite senior staff opposing the approval. On September 19, the FDA okayed eteplirsen to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a rare genetic disorder that results in muscle degeneration and … Continue reading Amid controversial Sarepta approval decision, FDA head calls for key study retraction

Authors retract 2016 cancer study when data don’t align with figures

Researchers have retracted a 2016 cancer study, citing discrepancies between the data and images presented in the paper.  Although the retraction notice itself contains relatively little information, we’ve obtained a letter from the last author — Jun-Li Luo of The Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida — to the editor-in-chief of Cell Death and Differentiation that says … Continue reading Authors retract 2016 cancer study when data don’t align with figures

When does “overlap” become plagiarism? Here’s what PLOS ONE decided

Consider this: Fragments of a PLOS ONE paper overlap with pieces of other publications. The authors used them without credit and without quotation marks. This sounds an awful lot like plagiarism — using PLOS‘s own standards, even. But the journal isn’t calling it plagiarism. They’ve labeled this an instance of “text overlap,” a spokesperson told us, based … Continue reading When does “overlap” become plagiarism? Here’s what PLOS ONE decided