A paper on apoptosis in mice has been retracted by Infection and Immunity after a reader tipped them off that several figures were “not faithful representations of the original data.” When the journal, published by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), contacted the authors at Anhui Medical University in Hefei, China, they claimed they couldn’t provide the … Continue reading “Not faithful” figures kill apoptosis paper
We recently wrote about three papers on heart health and exercise that came under fire for reporting the same trial in three different ways. Actually, make that four ways (so far). The Wiley journal Nursing and Health Sciences has retracted a fourth paper from the group, saying the “main study” was “previously published.” The notice … Continue reading Second exercise study retracted in four-paper pileup
Tulane researchers Tong Wu and Chang Han, who have been anonymously accused of figure duplication in the past, have now finally lost a paper for that reason. The frequent plagiarism tipster Juuichi Jigen (a pseudonym) set up a blog in 2012 alleging that the pair inappropriately reused images in six other papers, though none of those … Continue reading Figure dupe sinks cell bio paper
With the increasingly hectic pace of modern life, everybody is always on the look out for time-saving tricks and tips. Scientists at the National University of Singapore and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University certainly found one, but we really can’t recommend it: doing one randomized controlled trial (RCT) with several outcomes, and publishing them as three separate … Continue reading Heart study bleeds into three papers, one retracted and one withdrawn
The hits keep coming for University of Maryland researcher Anil Jaiswal. The latest retraction for the cell biologist is in Cancer Research, for a 2007 paper about ways in which the cell tries to protect the tumor suppressor p53. Like the first Jaiswal retraction we covered, the latest notice specifically taps figure duplication as the … Continue reading Fourth retraction appears for cancer researcher Anil Jaiswal
A duplicated figure has resulted in an expression of concern for a paper in the American Journal of Pathology on a treatment for ocular neovascularization, which causes vision loss. According to the notice, the corresponding author, David Shima, now at University College London, brought his concern to the journal. He called it a “genuine error” and … Continue reading “Genuine error” sees expression of concern for vision loss paper
Henk Buck, a Dutch chemist who once claimed he could cure AIDS, is back, publishing a long explanation of why he was right all along in a journal by what Jeffrey Beall calls a possible predatory publisher. Buck spent a few months in 1990 as a hero. In April of that year, he and his team published … Continue reading After 25 years, AIDS fraud comes back swinging
Accusations of plagiarism spanning at least 14 years have finally caught up with Richard Lawrence Etienne Barnett, who has had 13 papers retracted from a journal he had guest edited. The dean of the for-profit University of Atlanta has been accused of copying his own and others’ work a number of times, as we wrote in November. Here’s … Continue reading Serial plagiarist loses 13 papers
PubPeer continues to make its mark on the scientific literature. Here’s another installment of PubPeer Selections:
A postdoc at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation faked data in a submitted paper and in a grant application, according to a new report from the Office of Research Integrity. Bin Kang admitted to the misconduct, in which he