Following a journal probe and questions on PubPeer about their work, authors in Spain have issued four corrections, citing missing raw data for experiments conducted more than 10 years ago. All papers include the same last two authors, Mireia Duñach at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and Antonio García de Herreros at the Institut Hospital del Mar d’Investigacions … Continue reading Authors in Spain issue string of corrections
A pathology journal is retracting two papers after an investigation at the last author’s institution in Germany found evidence of scientific misconduct. The notice for both papers cites an investigation involving Regine Schneider-Stock, who studies cancer biology at the Friedrich Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU). Meanwhile, another 2005 paper that lists Schneider-Stock as the first author was retracted … Continue reading Cancer researcher in Germany loses multiple papers after misconduct finding
Journals published by the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) have retracted a handful of figures in two papers with the same last and first authors. After some figures in the 2005 and 2007 papers were flagged on PubPeer and the authors couldn’t provide the original data, the journals decided to retract parts of the papers, … Continue reading EMBO journals retract figures in two papers missing source data
A researcher in Brazil is taking responsibility for accidentally mixing up images in three papers in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. The corresponding author on the three papers told us the mistake happened because the studies were conducted simultaneously, and relied on one computer. There’s a side note to these retractions: The co-author list on … Continue reading Researcher logs three retractions for image duplications — two of which with familiar co-authors
Researchers have retracted a paper from a plant journal after a probe found problems with several figures. According to the new retraction notice in The Plant Cell, some figures in the paper were manipulated, as well as “inappropriately duplicated and reused from a previous publication.” The authors assert that they believe the conclusions remain valid. … Continue reading Journal issues three notices for plant biologist, two citing manipulation
A scientist in Germany has lost two papers that were collectively cited more than 500 times, after an investigation at her former university found her guilty of scientific misconduct. The probe into Tina Wenz by the University of Cologne in Germany, her former employer, recommended that six of her papers — which have induced some chatter on … Continue reading Researchers retract two well-cited papers for misconduct
A lab at the University of California, Los Angeles has retracted two papers for duplicated images. These retractions — in the Journal of Immunology — represent the second and third retractions for the lab head; he lost another paper after one of his former students confessed to manipulating images. Although Eriko Suzuki admitted to her actions … Continue reading UCLA lab pulls two papers — one by author who admitted to misconduct
When an ecologist realized he’d made a fatal error in a 2009 paper, he did the right thing: He immediately contacted the journal (Evolutionary Ecology Research) to ask for a retraction. But he didn’t stop there: He wrote a detailed blog post outlining how he learned — in October 2016, after a colleague couldn’t recreate … Continue reading “A sinking feeling in my gut:” Diary of a retraction
When it comes to detecting image manipulation, the more tools you have at your disposal, the better. In a recent issue of Science and Engineering Ethics, Lars Koppers at TU Dortmund University in Germany and his colleagues present a new way to scan images. Specifically, they created an open-source software that compares pixels within or … Continue reading Sleuthing out scientific fraud, pixel by pixel
Too many of us have sat through too many bad presentations. And no one wants to give one, either. Someone who’s seen his fair share of bad talks is David Sholl, of the Georgia Institute of Technology. In this helpful video, “The Secrets of Memorably Bad Presentations,” he presents some tongue-in-cheek advice on how to … Continue reading 18 tips for giving a horrible presentation