Authors withdraw immunology study, no reasons given

Researchers have withdrawn a 2010 article in the Journal of Biological Chemistry about an immune regulator. The paper was pulled without any explanation (in standard JBC style). Here’s the complete notice: This article has been withdrawn by the authors. The study’s authors were based out of Shandong University Medical School, Jinan General Hospital of Jinan Command … Continue reading Authors withdraw immunology study, no reasons given

Brandeis investigation finds scientific misconduct in gold nanoparticle paper

A group of authors is retracting a paper from Structure following a Brandeis University investigation that found the first author had fabricated a key result. Former graduate student Kelsey Anthony was first author of the paper, “High-Affinity Gold Nanoparticle Pin to Label and Localize Histidine-Tagged Protein in Macromolecular Assemblies, which was published online in February 2014. At … Continue reading Brandeis investigation finds scientific misconduct in gold nanoparticle paper

Serbian journal cleans house with 16 retractions and 2 corrections after investigation

Editors at the Archives of Biological Sciences, the official journal of Serbian Biological Society, have unleashed a flood of retractions and corrections as part of an effort to fix the mistakes of the former editorial board. The fixes – 16 retractions and two corrections, by our count – are in response to a formal investigation … Continue reading Serbian journal cleans house with 16 retractions and 2 corrections after investigation

Voinnet notches second retraction, two more corrections

Olivier Voinnet — a plant researcher who was recently suspended for two years from the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) after an investigation by ETH Zurich and CNRS found evidence of misconduct — has issued his second retraction and two more corrections. PNAS posted the retraction earlier this week for a 2006 article after an inspection … Continue reading Voinnet notches second retraction, two more corrections

Retracting duplicated paper “may damage the integrity of the literature,” says plant journal editor

In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology – Plant has flagged a 2004 article that was “accidentally” duplicated from another paper published earlier that year — but did so in the form of a publisher’s erratum, not a retraction. The editor of the journal justified the decision by arguing that the duplicated paper had been cited “over a … Continue reading Retracting duplicated paper “may damage the integrity of the literature,” says plant journal editor

Head of major diagnostic lab in Canada steps down amid investigation

A prominent endocrinologist pathologist has resigned from running the largest hospital diagnostic laboratory in Canada following an investigation that has uncovered evidence of falsified data in two papers, Retraction Watch has learned. Sylvia Asa was the Program Medical Director of the Laboratory Medicine Program at the University Health Network, affiliated with the University of Toronto, until this past … Continue reading Head of major diagnostic lab in Canada steps down amid investigation

Cell biologist Hanna issues two errata; images mysteriously disappear from Imgur

Cell biologist Jacob Hanna, the highly cited stem cell researcher currently at the Weizmann Institute of Science,  has posted a long erratum for a 2005 paper in Blood for “inadvertent mistakes,” among other issues; soon after, Hanna’s team issued another erratum for a 2009 Cell Stem Cell paper. There’s more to tell: Last month, commenters … Continue reading Cell biologist Hanna issues two errata; images mysteriously disappear from Imgur

Gynecologic cancer researcher up to 13 retractions

Noriyuki Takai, a gynecologic cancer researcher at Oita University in Japan, has lost another five papers. With a new total of 13, that means he’s now on our leaderboard. Three of the retractions are from the journal Tumor Biology, one is from the International Journal of Gynecological Cancer, and one from Anticancer Research. Takai is the first author on all … Continue reading Gynecologic cancer researcher up to 13 retractions

Weekend reads: How to publish in Nature; social media circumvents peer review; impatience leads to fakery

The week at Retraction Watch featured a look at why a fraudster’s papers continued to earn citations after he went to prison, and criticism of Science by hundreds of researchers. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Gut paper retracted after university review says “figures cannot be validated by original data”

A biologist at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Ohio has retracted a paper from Inflammatory Bowel Diseases after a university review found the figures within it could not be “validated by original data.” The 2010 paper, “Elevated IL-13Rα2 in intestinal epithelial cells from ulcerative colitis or colorectal cancer initiates MAPK pathway,” concerns the elevated expression … Continue reading Gut paper retracted after university review says “figures cannot be validated by original data”