Four more retractions for biomaterials researcher brings total to 7

A biomaterials researcher has lost four more papers for figure-related issues such as duplications, bringing his total to seven retractions. We previously reported on three retractions — two by the Journal of Controlled Release (JCR) — of papers co-authored by Hossein Hosseinkhani, who is currently based at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology … Continue reading Four more retractions for biomaterials researcher brings total to 7

Authors in 2014 peer review ring lose 4 more papers each for “compromised” review

A journal is pulling additional papers authored by twin brothers for peer review issues. After retracting three papers by Cheng-Wu Chen earlier this year for “compromised” peer review, Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing & Service Industries is now pulling four more by Chen for the same reason — and four others by his twin brother, Chen-Yuan Chen, who was a … Continue reading Authors in 2014 peer review ring lose 4 more papers each for “compromised” review

Now this is transparent: Retraction for plagiarism earns 4-page editor’s note

A journal has retracted a paper about 3D imaging after concluding the authors used equations from another researcher without attribution — and has conveniently included a detailed editorial explaining exactly what happened. It’s rare for us to see a journal be so transparent in explaining what went wrong with one of its papers, so we’re thanking … Continue reading Now this is transparent: Retraction for plagiarism earns 4-page editor’s note

“I am really sorry:” Peer reviewer stole text for own paper

We’re sharing a relatively old retraction notice with you today, because it’s of a nature we don’t often see: A chemist apparently stole text from a manuscript he was reviewing. In spring of 2009, Yi-Chou Tsai, a chemist at National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, was reviewing a paper for Nature Chemistry. At the time, he’d … Continue reading “I am really sorry:” Peer reviewer stole text for own paper

Author in 2014 peer review ring loses 3 more papers for peer review problems

A journal is retracting three papers — including one that is highly cited — after learning the reviewers that recommended publication had conflicts of interest. This is a case of family values gone awry: The author common to all papers is Cheng-Wu Chen at the National Kaohsiung Marine University in Taiwan, the twin brother of one … Continue reading Author in 2014 peer review ring loses 3 more papers for peer review problems

Author dispute, “considerable overlap” retract chemistry study

A chemistry journal has issued a retraction after “a thorough and time-consuming analysis” revealed two out of four authors did not agree to submitting an article published in May, which also contains “considerable overlap and redundancy” with another paper published a few weeks prior in a different journal. Shortly after the paper appeared in Spectrochimica Acta Part … Continue reading Author dispute, “considerable overlap” retract chemistry study

Journals retracts three bone papers for duplication by same author

A journal is Journals are retracting three papers after a biomaterials researcher duplicated his own work, sometimes using the same figures to describe different experiments. Two of the papers are on bone regeneration; one is about targeting tumors. In addition to issues with figures, two one of the retraction notes explain that the papers contain “widespread plagiarism of text” … Continue reading Journals retracts three bone papers for duplication by same author

Paper on plant immunity can’t fight off manipulation

A paper on how plants respond to bacteria has an invader of its own — data manipulation. The “irregularities and inappropriate data manipulation” were found in a figure produced by the first author, Ching-Wei Chen, whose LinkedIn page lists him as a student at the National Taiwan University. The authors were unable to replicate the results in the … Continue reading Paper on plant immunity can’t fight off manipulation

Renewable energy researcher recycled material, agrees to withdraw 10 papers

Investigations at two institutions at Taiwan determined in 2013 that a renewable energy researcher duplicated his own work; the researcher agreed to pull 10 papers. A total of six have been withdrawn or retracted, two in November, 2015. Shyi-Min Lu is the corresponding author on the two newly retracted papers, from Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. The retractions follow investigations at the … Continue reading Renewable energy researcher recycled material, agrees to withdraw 10 papers

Weekend reads: Elsevier mutiny; babies as co-authors; what to do after rejection

This week’s Weekend Reads, which appears below, was preempted yesterday by the news that the Office of Research Integrity had issued a finding of misconduct in the long-running case of Anil Potti. The week also featured news about a child psychiatry trial halted for unexplained reasons, and saw the launch of our new weekly column … Continue reading Weekend reads: Elsevier mutiny; babies as co-authors; what to do after rejection