Search Results for: medical

Study claiming “abortion reversal” is safe and effective temporarily withdrawn for ethical issues

A journal has temporarily removed a study by a researcher who has long championed a highly controversial “abortion reversal” method over concerns about its ethical approval. The study, “A Case Series Detailing the Successful Reversal of the Effects of Mifepristone Using Progesterone,” appeared in Issues In Law And Medicine in April. Its first author, George … Continue reading Study claiming “abortion reversal” is safe and effective temporarily withdrawn for ethical issues

University of Liverpool reverses course, names researcher guilty of misconduct

A few weeks ago, we received a press release that gave us pause: The University of Liverpool said it had found one of its researchers guilty of research misconduct — but did not say who, nor which papers might be involved. Now, less than one month later, the university is naming the researcher, and identifying … Continue reading University of Liverpool reverses course, names researcher guilty of misconduct

Researchers pull Nature paper over first author’s objections

Researchers have retracted a 2015 Nature paper about the molecular underpinnings of immune function after discovering they could not replicate key parts of the results. The first author, Wendy Huang — who started working as an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego, only months after the paper appeared — did not sign … Continue reading Researchers pull Nature paper over first author’s objections

An author says his work should be “widely heralded and promoted.” So he published it 3 times.

Barislav Momčilović thinks that iodine status is — after iron deficiency — the “main public health” issue in the world today. So when he figured out what he believed was the best way to test levels of the mineral, he was determined to get the message out. A little too determined, perhaps: He published the … Continue reading An author says his work should be “widely heralded and promoted.” So he published it 3 times.

A university went to great lengths to block the release of information about a trial gone wrong. A reporter fought them and revealed the truth.

Here’s a story that shows the lengths a public university — The University of Illinois at Chicago — went to block the release of information about a child psychiatry trial gone wrong, and how a reporter — Jodi S. Cohen of ProPublica — fought them effectively at every turn to reveal the truth. Earlier this … Continue reading A university went to great lengths to block the release of information about a trial gone wrong. A reporter fought them and revealed the truth.

Reports of misconduct investigations can tell us a lot. Here are more than a dozen of them.

Fakery. Ignored whistleblowers. Sabotage. Subterfuge. Reading reports of institutional investigations into allegations of misconduct can sometimes feel like reading a spy novel about science. And we’ve read a lot of them. In a recent post that drew from one such report, we wrote: Whenever we learn about misconduct cases at public universities, we file such … Continue reading Reports of misconduct investigations can tell us a lot. Here are more than a dozen of them.

Weekend reads: The fall of a Crossfit science watchdog; a CDC retraction about suicides; “superb subterfuge” by predatory journals

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 critic with more than two dozen retractions; why twenty … Continue reading Weekend reads: The fall of a Crossfit science watchdog; a CDC retraction about suicides; “superb subterfuge” by predatory journals

35,000 papers may need to be retracted for image doctoring, says new paper

Yes, you read that headline right. In a new preprint posted to bioRxiv, image sleuths scanned hundreds of papers published over a seven-year period in Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB), published by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). The researchers — Arturo Casadevall of Johns Hopkins University, Elisabeth Bik of uBiome, Ferric Fang of the … Continue reading 35,000 papers may need to be retracted for image doctoring, says new paper

High-profile indexing service punishes 20 journals, issues unusual warning about five others

If scientific publishing were the World Cup, twenty scientific journals are being effectively taken out of competition today. And five others are being given a stern first-time warning. Every year, Clarivate Analytics, a company that indexes more than 11,000 journals — and which, in turn, designates their powerful, but controversial, Impact Factors and rankings, based … Continue reading High-profile indexing service punishes 20 journals, issues unusual warning about five others

Karolinska finds Macchiarini, six other researchers guilty of misconduct

Former super-star surgeon Paolo Macchiarini is guilty of misconduct, along with six of his co-authors — including one who initially help alert authorities to problems with Macchiarini’s work, according to an announcement today by his former institution, the Karolinska Institute. KI is also calling to retract six articles co-authored by Macchiarini and his colleagues, including … Continue reading Karolinska finds Macchiarini, six other researchers guilty of misconduct