Search Results for: press release

Frontiers retracts nearly 40 papers linked to ‘authorship-for-sale’

The publisher Frontiers has retracted nearly 40 papers across multiple journals linked to “the unethical practice of buying or selling authorship on research papers,” according to a press release posted to a company website Monday.  The release also states Frontiers is adopting new policies to prevent the sale of authorships on papers it publishes.  The … Continue reading Frontiers retracts nearly 40 papers linked to ‘authorship-for-sale’

Editors of public health journal resign over differences with publisher

The co-editors in chief and most editorial board members of the journal Critical Public Health have resigned their roles to start a new, independent journal, citing differences with their publisher, Taylor & Francis.  “While there are inevitable tensions for a critically oriented scholarly journal that is also a commodity marketed by a commercial publisher, over … Continue reading Editors of public health journal resign over differences with publisher

“Truly devastating”: Four journals won’t get new Impact Factors this year because of citation shenanigans

Clarivate, the company that assigns journals Impact Factors, this year will not give four journals updated versions of the controversial metric used by many institutions and publications as a shorthand for quality.  The journals will remain indexed in Web of Science, but won’t have an Impact Factor for this year in Clarivate’s 2023 Journal Citation … Continue reading “Truly devastating”: Four journals won’t get new Impact Factors this year because of citation shenanigans

‘Deplorable’: Imaging journal to retract nearly 80 papers for compromised peer review

A journal co-published by two scientific societies is retracting nearly 80 papers after an “investigation into peer review fraud.” The Journal of Electronic Imaging is retracting the articles – all originally published in special sections between 2021 and 2023 – starting this week. The journal is co-published by “SPIE, the international society for optics and … Continue reading ‘Deplorable’: Imaging journal to retract nearly 80 papers for compromised peer review

After backlash, publisher to retract article that surveyed parents of children with gender dysphoria, says co-author

Springer Nature will retract an article that reported results of a survey of parents who thought their children’s gender dysphoria resulted from social contagion. The move is “due to concerns about lack of informed consent,” according to tweets by one of the paper’s authors.  The article, “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria: Parent Reports on 1655 Possible … Continue reading After backlash, publisher to retract article that surveyed parents of children with gender dysphoria, says co-author

Dutch university can revoke PhD for fake data, court rules

In 2018, a newly minted PhD made an uncomfortable discovery.  At a conference, he saw other researchers presenting the results of their attempt to replicate the work of one of his fellow students at Wageningen University in the Netherlands who had found a relationship between heavy rainfall and the number of prisoners in Nigeria in … Continue reading Dutch university can revoke PhD for fake data, court rules

Nature editors retract influential cancer paper with “unreliable” data 

Editors at Nature have retracted a 2015 paper on breast cancer metastases citing trouble with the data in the supplementary materials.  The paper, “The hypoxic cancer secretome induces pre-metastatic bone lesions through lysyl oxidase,” was first published in May 2015 and has been cited 352 times, according to Clarivate’s Web of Science.  This marks the … Continue reading Nature editors retract influential cancer paper with “unreliable” data 

Wiley paused Hindawi special issues amid quality problems, lost $9 million in revenue

Hindawi, the open access publisher that Wiley acquired in 2021, temporarily suspended publishing special issues because of “compromised articles,” according to a press release announcing the company’s third quarter financial results.  Brian Napack, Wiley’s president and CEO, specifically noted the “unplanned publishing pause at Hindawi” as a factor that “challenged” the company this year.  The … Continue reading Wiley paused Hindawi special issues amid quality problems, lost $9 million in revenue

Contamination leads to swift retraction for Science paper on the origins of Omicron in Africa

The authors of a paper that proposed the Omicron variant of SARS-Cov-2 had evolved in Western Africa months before it was first detected in South Africa have retracted their study after discovering contamination in their samples, as several scientists had suggested on Twitter was the case.  The article, “Gradual emergence followed by exponential spread of … Continue reading Contamination leads to swift retraction for Science paper on the origins of Omicron in Africa

Weekend reads: ‘Illegal practices in palaeontology’; ‘a fake badge of integrity’; researcher jailed

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 270. There are more than 36,000 retractions in our database — which powers retraction alerts in EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most … Continue reading Weekend reads: ‘Illegal practices in palaeontology’; ‘a fake badge of integrity’; researcher jailed