A former researcher at Duke University has admitted to faking data that allegedly were used to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants. Duke has also admitted that it knew Erin Potts-Kant, a pulmonary scientist, faked data, but it’s unclear whether that was discovered prior to using those data to apply for grants, … Continue reading Duke admits faked data “potentially affected” grant applications
Researchers at a prominent Japanese university have retracted a 2016 paper in a chemistry journal after the first author admitted to scientific misconduct. According to the notice, Kyushu University investigated and verified that the first author had committed scientific misconduct. We requested a copy of the misconduct report, which revealed that the researcher, Prasenjit Mahato, a … Continue reading “Searching our souls”: Authors retract paper after researcher admits to fabricating data
In 2005, the U.S. Office of Research Integrity found an obesity researcher had engaged in scientific misconduct. More specifically, the ORI report revealed that Eric Poehlman, then based at the University of Vermont, had “falsified and fabricated” data in 10 papers. The 2005 report asked that the journals issue retractions or corrections to the papers. … Continue reading 12 years after researcher found guilty of misconduct, journal retracts paper
A New York jury has found Hengjun Chao, a former research assistant professor at Mount Sinai, guilty of attempted second degree murder and two other charges. Last year, Chao shot Dennis Charney, a Mount Sinai dean who had fired him in 2010 for misconduct, outside of a deli in a wealthy New York suburb. … Continue reading Ex-researcher who shot dean found guilty of attempted murder
A journal has retracted a paper after the university notified the editors that the authors presented the gruesome details of a patient who they didn’t directly treat. But the paper’s corresponding author disputes that claim, arguing that the first author — a radiologist, who has since passed away, provided a crucial diagnosis in this case. We’ve tried … Continue reading When a tractor stabs a man in the eye, who gets to write up the case report?
The senior author of a lawsuit-spawning study of the CrossFit exercise program has resigned from his post at The Ohio State University. On June 2, we reported that the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research retracted the problematic study because it lacked approval from the institutional review board. The journal had previously corrected the study, … Continue reading Ohio State exercise researcher resigns after retraction of CrossFit study
The Japanese Society of Anesthesiologists has permanently banned a co-author of notorious fraudster Yoshitaka Fujii, after investigating many of his publications for alleged fraud. According to the announcement last month (in Japanese), a committee investigated approximately 40 publications by Yuhji Saitoh of Yachiyo Medical Center and Tokyo Women’s Medical University in Japan. Saitoh resigned from the society once … Continue reading Anesthesiology society bans co-author of researcher with record-number of retractions
A sweeping analysis of more than 5,000 papers in eight leading medical journals has found compelling evidence of suspect data in roughly 2% of randomized controlled clinical trials in those journals. Although the analysis, by John Carlisle, an anesthetist in the United Kingdom, could not determine whether the concerning data were tainted by misconduct or … Continue reading Two in 100 clinical trials in eight major journals likely contain inaccurate data: Study
This week, the New England Journal of Medicine issued a type of editor’s note we’ve never seen before, on a highly influential letter published nearly 40 years ago. Above the one-paragraph letter, which reports data suggesting pain medications are not likely to cause addiction, the journal has added a note warning readers that the letter has … Continue reading NEJM issues unusual warning for readers about 1980 letter on opioid addiction
Some accidental mistakes have led researchers to issue a long correction to a 2016 PNAS paper. According to the notice, when the cell biology paper’s corresponding authors became aware of duplications in two images, they immediately notified the journal and the University of Nottingham. After examining the original data archives, the university found that the … Continue reading “Clumsy but genuine errors” prompt PNAS correction