An article published in the Bulletin of the Italian Society of Entomology has been retracted in the wake of a squabble over the ownership of the data. The 2012 paper, “A contribution to the Ichneumoninae fauna of Sicily (Hymenoptera Ichneumonidae,” was written by Matthias Riedel and Salvatore Tomarchio, and deals with the so-called ichneumon wasps … Continue reading Dispute over data forces retraction of wasp paper
Two years ago, the FASEB Journal retracted a paper that it had initially agreed to correct, after a dean at one of the author’s institutions said that a “well-recognized and top-class fact finding commission concluded that the publication contains gross flaws.” The retraction of the 2003 paper, as we noted at the time, punctuated a … Continue reading Bitter legal fight leads to a retracted retraction
Industrial and Corporate Change is the site of management professor Ulrich Lichtenthaler’s 12th retraction. Here’s the notice for “Outward knowledge transfer: the impact of project-based organization on performance,” originally published in 2010:
A former researcher at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis has won back the right to apply for Federal research funding despite a 2011 finding against him by the Office of Research Integrity (ORI). Philippe Bois, a cancer researcher now working at the Scripps Research Institute in Florida, argued that the alleged misconduct in … Continue reading Researcher found by ORI to have committed misconduct earns back right to apply for Federal grants
Scientific experiments are like recipes: With the right components and the proper steps, the end result can be a thing of beauty. But if you start with a cup of salt instead of a cup of flour, well, even the neighbor’s schnauzer won’t touch that batch of sugar cookies. That’s a little like the situation … Continue reading Calibration error sends moisture paper down the drain
A second investigation into work co-authored by Paul Morgan, a dean at Cardiff University, has cleared him of research misconduct, but has found that Rossen Donev, a former researcher at the university — who has already retracted one study — falsified images in four papers. As we reported last August, Cardiff “initiated its Procedure for … Continue reading Cardiff clears dean of misconduct allegations, but finds former researcher falsified images
A case of alleged misconduct at the University of Washington in Seattle may finally be over. The Office of Research Integrity released its findings following an investigation into the work of Andrew Aprikyan, a former hematology researcher at the university. The Aprikyan case has dragged on for a decade. In 2010, the university fired the … Continue reading ORI rules in longstanding University of Washington misconduct case
Note (4/9/13): John McArthur contacted us with a few corrections, which we have made below. The Journal of Contaminant Hydrology has retracted a 2008 paper by a group of Indian scientists for plagiarism and the failure to adequately reference their sources. What makes this case somewhat unusual is that the journal allowed the authors to … Continue reading Arsenic-in-the-water paper with “interesting data” first corrected, now retracted
PLOS ONE has issued a fascinating expression of concern about data collection in a paper it published late last year on the possible spread of deadly viruses among Indonesian orangutans. The case has been brought to the attention of the Indonesian government, but more on that in a moment. The article, published last July by … Continue reading Orangutan-Ebola link in PLOS ONE paper under scrutiny
A recently released survey of Belgian scientists suggests that Flemish medical researchers admit to having made up or massaged data more often than their counterparts around their world. The survey, by the Dutch science magazine Eos with the help of Joeri Tijdink, of VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, and the Pascal Decroos Fund for … Continue reading One in twelve Belgian medical scientists admits having “made up and/or massaged data”: Survey