Authorship questions: Retracted infection paper from Spain broke all (well, most) of the rules

Have you heard the story about the young, Orthodox Jewish fellow who decides to stop keeping kosher, so he goes to the local coffee shop and orders a cheeseburger with ham and bacon and a glass of milk?

Some retraction notices put us in mind of that tale (true, by the way). Consider the following one from the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, in regard to a 2010 paper by Spanish scientists titled “Nationwide Sentinel Surveillance of Bloodstream Candida Infections in 40 Tertiary Care Hospitals in Spain”: Continue reading Authorship questions: Retracted infection paper from Spain broke all (well, most) of the rules

Author of retracted Molecular Biology and Evolution paper explains opaque notice that’ll still cost you $32

A completely unhelpful retraction notice appears in the September issue of Molecular Biology and Evolution for “Investigating the Role of Natural Selection on Coding Sequence Evolution in Salmonids Through NGS Data Mining,” a paper first published in March.

Here’s the entire notice for the paper — which has been removed completely from the journal’s site, we should mention: Continue reading Author of retracted Molecular Biology and Evolution paper explains opaque notice that’ll still cost you $32

The $240,000 retraction: Scientist responsible gives back company shares

In December, we reported on how a Swedish company that was about to go public dealt with a retraction of a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) that formed some of the basis of their work. The company, Wnt Research, was scheduled to go public on November 26, 2010, but after the retraction appeared on November 11, they postponed the initial public offering (IPO), and let every investor that had expressed an interest know about the retraction.

We thought the company’s moves demonstrated a remarkable transparency. Now we learn that the scientist responsible for the errors that led to the retraction has given back the shares which he or she was given when the company was founded. The company announced the news in a press release last week: Continue reading The $240,000 retraction: Scientist responsible gives back company shares

Imperial committee to weigh “validity” of Ahluwalia’s PhD following second retraction

Earlier this week, we reported on the retraction of another paper by Jatinder Ahluwalia, whose record of misconduct has left marks at Cambridge and University College London. Today, a spokesperson for Imperial College London, where the soon-to-be-retracted work formed the basis of Ahluwalia’s PhD, tells Retraction Watch that a committee will review Ahluwalia’s doctorate: Continue reading Imperial committee to weigh “validity” of Ahluwalia’s PhD following second retraction

Plant Science retracts paper for reused data, forged authorship

Moez Smiri, a graduate student in a Tunisian-French laboratory collaboration, clearly needed publications on his CV. But we wouldn’t recommend his solution to the problem.

Smiri used cut-and-paste data (his own, to be fair) to write a flurry of manuscripts that he sent around to a variety of journals, most of them deeply obscure. And, for a little gravitas, he also added the names of several co-authors — without their knowledge.

The result, from Plant Science: Continue reading Plant Science retracts paper for reused data, forged authorship

Another retraction for Jatinder Ahluwalia, in Journal of Neurochemistry

The Journal of Neurochemistry will retract a paper by Jatinder Ahluwalia, the scientist who recently left his post at the University of East London following an investigation into his work.

Ahluwalia was lead author of the 2003 paper, “Activation of capsaicin-sensitive primary sensory neurones induces anandamide production and release,” while earning his PhD at Imperial College London. It had already been the subject of a June 2010 correction. That correction blamed the paper’s problems on a typo:  Continue reading Another retraction for Jatinder Ahluwalia, in Journal of Neurochemistry

New retractions of diabetes, cardiovascular papers from Japan involve repeat use of figures

At least four retractions have appeared involving the work of a group of Japanese researchers who appear to have reused figures — and doctored them — in multiple manuscripts.

The authors, led by Yoshiyuki Hattori, of Dokkyo University School of Medicine in Mibu (whose motto, by the way, is “where character is developed through learning” a reader points out that we had the wrong Dokkyo initially), published the same figure twice, and in the same year, in the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Biochimica et Biophysica Acta.

Here’s a retraction notice from the JCP: Continue reading New retractions of diabetes, cardiovascular papers from Japan involve repeat use of figures

Brazilian forensic entomologist faces at least three retractions for plagiarism

After being found guilty of plagiarism, a Brazilian forensic entomologist has been forced to retract one paper and several chapters of a textbook, and will have at least one other paper withdrawn.

The retraction of one of the papers, “Forensic entomology and main challenges in Brazil,” in Neotropical Entomology, was reported earlier this year by Marcelo Hermes-Lima. That withdrawal followed an angry letter from Jens Amendt, of Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Hospital in Frankfurt, Germany, and Carlo C. Campobasso, of the University of Molise in Italy, to Regina Lúcia Sugayama, editor in chief of Neotropical Entomology. According to the retraction notice: Continue reading Brazilian forensic entomologist faces at least three retractions for plagiarism

A fifth retraction for Anil Potti, this one in Blood

courtesy Duke

The list of papers retracted by former Duke oncologist Anil Potti has grown to five. The notice, from Blood: Continue reading A fifth retraction for Anil Potti, this one in Blood

Plagiarism in Indian Journal of Dermatology earns Tunisian authors a 5-year submission ban

The Indian Journal of Dermatology has banned a group of Tunisian researchers from publishing in the journal after the authors were found to have plagiarized. According to a retraction notice that ran on the journal’s site in May:  Continue reading Plagiarism in Indian Journal of Dermatology earns Tunisian authors a 5-year submission ban