Weekend reads: Falsified authorship; allegations about more than 200 papers; honoring an exploitative scientist

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 retraction of a 30-year-old paper cited by creationists; A … Continue reading Weekend reads: Falsified authorship; allegations about more than 200 papers; honoring an exploitative scientist

Reviewers asked authors to change their study design. It apparently didn’t go well.

In what the editor of a psychiatry journal says in an unusual case, the authors of a paper on treatments for depression have retracted it after being alerted to “inconsistencies” stemming from a change to their study design that the peer reviewers had requested.  Here’s the retraction notice, in The Journal of Nervous and Mental … Continue reading Reviewers asked authors to change their study design. It apparently didn’t go well.

Thirty years after publication, a paper cited by creationists is retracted

A paper by a Russian researcher who has been dogged by allegations of fraud has been retracted, 30 years to the month after its publication, and 25 years after the journal published a strongly critical letter to the editor. The 1989 paper on the genetics of wild timber voles by Dmitrii A. Kuznetsov in the … Continue reading Thirty years after publication, a paper cited by creationists is retracted

A failure at Renal Failure leads to retraction of duplicate article

A kidney journal has retracted a 2019 paper by a group of researchers in China for an unfortunate own-goal.  The article, “The relationship between hemodialysis mortality and the Chinese medical insurance type,” was first published in January in Renal Failure, a Taylor & Francis title. It appeared again in the journal nine months later.  According … Continue reading A failure at Renal Failure leads to retraction of duplicate article

Weekend reads: Grad student who alleged discrimination dismissed; academics who play dumb; when papers cite predatory works

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 rare permanent ban on U.S. federal research funding for … Continue reading Weekend reads: Grad student who alleged discrimination dismissed; academics who play dumb; when papers cite predatory works

Weekend reads: Scientist loses job after 30 retractions; breast cancer researcher committed misconduct; “two crashes” at Duke

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: an author irked about “science by tweet” after his paper … Continue reading Weekend reads: Scientist loses job after 30 retractions; breast cancer researcher committed misconduct; “two crashes” at Duke

‘Science by tweet’ prompts expression of concern, irking authors

The leader of an international team of genetics researchers is seething after a journal responded to critical tweets about their paper by issuing an expression of concern.  The article, “Exome sequencing in multiple sclerosis families identifies 12 candidate genes and nominates biological pathways for the genesis of disease,” was published in PLOS Genetics in early … Continue reading ‘Science by tweet’ prompts expression of concern, irking authors

Weekend reads: A costly code glitch; sparks fly over a heart trial; cancer researcher faced five investigations

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 retraction of a study that claimed high heels made … Continue reading Weekend reads: A costly code glitch; sparks fly over a heart trial; cancer researcher faced five investigations

A journal has its version of an NBA moment

Authors are calling “no traveling” on Liver Research for changing their affiliation without permission. Editors at the publication changed the affiliation of a group of researchers from several institutions in Taiwan– including the Taipei Veterans General Hospital and the National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine, also in Taipei — to mainland China.  The notice for … Continue reading A journal has its version of an NBA moment

Cancer lab at Harvard subject of inquiry

Harvard has investigated work from the lab of a cancer researcher at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center that has been under scrutiny on PubPeer for more than five years. Questions about the output of the lab, run by James W. Mier, began appearing on PubPeer in 2014, with comments about images that looked manipulated. The … Continue reading Cancer lab at Harvard subject of inquiry