A physiology journal has retracted a paper after an institutional investigation found that portions of the work had been falsified by the first author. According to the notice issued by the American Journal of Physiology – Renal Physiology (AJP), the last author initiated the investigation at the University of Houston in Texas, which found the … Continue reading Researcher committed misconduct “recklessly,” says investigation
One journal has retracted a paper containing images that recently raised suspicions of obvious duplications, and another journal is planning to do the same. Scientists first leveled accusations against the newly retracted paper in Scientific Reports, along with two others by the same researchers, earlier this month on Twitter. One other journal — PeerJ — has announced … Continue reading Two journals retracting papers from University of Malaya featuring widely criticized figures
Bharat Aggarwal, a highly cited cancer researcher who retired last year from MD Anderson, has logged two retractions following an investigation into his work, bringing his total to nine. Aggarwal has threatened to sue us in the past, and told us that MD Anderson has been investigating his work. Earlier this year, Biochemical Pharmacology retracted seven studies of … Continue reading Highly cited cancer researcher logs 8th, 9th retractions
The week at Retraction Watch featured revelations of fraud in more than $100 million in government research, and swift findings in a much-discussed case. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:
An investigation at Wayne State University has prompted five retractions for a scientist who is suing PubPeer commenters after they criticized his work on the site. The investigation into Fazlul Sarkar and his co-authors found that the papers contain images that were “inappropriately manipulated” or “inappropriately re-used and re-labeled.” All five retraction notices are from the Journal of Cellular Biochemistry. … Continue reading Researcher suing PubPeer commenters earns 5 retractions following investigation
Many figures in four papers by a research team in Malaysia contain duplication or manipulation, a university committee has found, calling for multiple retractions. We learned about issues with three of the papers, including one in Scientific Reports, earlier this week when they were the talk of Twitter. As journals issued expressions of concern, and an expert wondered how … Continue reading Figures questioned online were manipulated, says Malaysia investigation
A PhD student who was supposed to complete part of an experiment passed the job on to a third party company, which in turn provided figures that were plagiarized and fabricated. That’s according to the corresponding author of the paper, which has now been retracted. Hong Ren, affiliated with Xi’an Jiao Tong University in China, told us that he … Continue reading Third party company botched student’s doctoral work, says biologist
A U.S. judge has denied a virology researcher’s third attempt to overturn a seven-year debarment from receiving federal funds, following a 2010 decision by the U.S. Office of Research Integrity. The ORI banned Scott Brodie for seven years after concluding he had committed 15 acts of misconduct at the University of Washington. The deception affected … Continue reading Fraudster loses third attempt to remove 7-year debarment
Twitter is abuzz today over allegations that a recent paper in Scientific Reports contains a blatant example of duplication. According to the allegations, a group of researchers in Malaysia have used the same four images to represent some 30 cells at different stages of cell death. One researcher has even suggested the allegedly doctored images appear in three … Continue reading Author denies accusations of blatant duplication
A biologist has corrected three papers that are nearly a decade old, after concerns were raised on PubPeer. A commenter first posted a comment about an image in one of the papers in 2013; after more comments on other papers appeared in November 2015, author Zoya Avramova at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln received emails alerting her to … Continue reading Prompted by PubPeer, biologist corrects three papers