Search Results for: nature

Journal calls 2012 paper “deeply offensive to particular minorities”

An Elsevier journal plans to issue a retraction notice this week about a widely criticized 2012 paper claiming to find links between skin color, aggression, and sexuality. Earlier this month, we reported that the journal, Personality and Individual Differences (PAID), would retract the study “Do pigmentation and the melanocortin system modulate aggression and sexuality in … Continue reading Journal calls 2012 paper “deeply offensive to particular minorities”

Weekend reads: A deluge of papers, reviewed in haste; a dog food study faces scrutiny; the trouble with research evaluations

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: The tale of why it’s so difficult to publish a … Continue reading Weekend reads: A deluge of papers, reviewed in haste; a dog food study faces scrutiny; the trouble with research evaluations

Law firm sues OSU cancer researcher for $900,000 in unpaid fees following failed libel suit

Carlo Croce may be back in court again — but this time, as a defendant. Last month, Croce lost a defamation suit he filed against David Sanders, a Purdue researcher who was quoted in a 2017 New York Times story about allegations regarding Croce’s work. Croce had already lost an appeal of a related suit … Continue reading Law firm sues OSU cancer researcher for $900,000 in unpaid fees following failed libel suit

A Wiley journal makes another article disappear

In journalism, we have a running joke: Once something happens three times, it is a trend. Well, one publisher’s propensity for making articles disappear from journal websites seems to be a trend. Twice this month, we have reported on Wiley’s disappearing act. Angewandte Chemie, a top chemistry journal, made an editorial decrying diversity efforts disappear. … Continue reading A Wiley journal makes another article disappear

Tortuous and torturous: Why publishing a critical letter to the editor is so difficult

Often, when confronted with allegations of errors in papers they have published, journal editors encourage researchers to submit letters to the editor. Based on what we hear from such letter writers, however, the journals don’t make publication an easy process. Here’s one such story from a group at Indiana University: Luis M. Mestre, Stephanie L. … Continue reading Tortuous and torturous: Why publishing a critical letter to the editor is so difficult

Weekend reads: When peer review fails; gender imbalances in citations; COVID-19 science under scrutiny

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 paper that took a journal three days to accept … Continue reading Weekend reads: When peer review fails; gender imbalances in citations; COVID-19 science under scrutiny

Elsevier journal to retract 2012 paper widely derided as racist

An article claiming that skin pigmentation is related to aggression and sexuality in humans will be retracted, Elsevier announced today. The study, “Do pigmentation and the melanocortin system modulate aggression and sexuality in humans as they do in other animals?” was published online in Personality and Individual Differences, an Elsevier journal, on March 15, 2012. … Continue reading Elsevier journal to retract 2012 paper widely derided as racist

Failure fails as publisher privileges the privileged

Is too much irony even a thing? Let’s test the principle.  The guest editor of a special issue on failures in public health and related projects has quit the effort because she and her colleagues couldn’t convince the journal to include more researchers from developing countries in the initiative. In a blog post about the … Continue reading Failure fails as publisher privileges the privileged

A journal took three days to accept a COVID-19 paper. It’s taken two months and counting to retract it.

A Springer Nature journal has issued an editor’s note — which seems an awful lot like an Expression of Concern — for a widely circulated but quickly contested paper about how the novel coronavirus might infect white blood cells, akin to HIV. However, readers could be forgiven for missing that fact. Indeed, the journal itself appears … Continue reading A journal took three days to accept a COVID-19 paper. It’s taken two months and counting to retract it.

Weekend reads: A wake-up call?; paper’s author accused of racism; an editor resigns over personal attacks

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: The withdrawal of a COVID-19 scoring tool based on Surgisphere … Continue reading Weekend reads: A wake-up call?; paper’s author accused of racism; an editor resigns over personal attacks