A difficult authorship dispute, involving two journals and at least two continents, has led to an Expression of Concern in the Brazilian Journal of Rheumatology. Here’s the Expression of Concern:
When Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews accepted a paper last year arguing that nuclear power is Iran’s “assured right,” the editor, Lawrence Kazmirski, thought the article would be at least somewhat controversial. He was right — but for the wrong reason. Shortly after publication, Kazmirski, director of the National Center for Photovoltaics at the National Renewable … Continue reading Should Iran have nuclear power? Paper addressing question retracted for authorship issues
One of the most contentious issues in scholarly publishing is authorship. Sometimes there’s forgery involved, but most of the time the tension is more mundane but also more pernicious: Researchers who did most of the work wondering why “honorary” authors suddenly appear on papers, or wondering why their own names didn’t appear. Journals, it would seem, are … Continue reading How good are journals at policing authorship?
Here’s a he said-he said that left one author with a publication, then nothing, and us scratching our heads. In March 2010, the British Journal of Haematology issued a rather straightforward correction regarding a 2007 article by a group of researchers from Kansas Kansas City, Missouri. The glitch? The manuscript evidently left out an author: … Continue reading Lab squabble leads to retracted correction over authorship in British Journal of Haematology
The journal Chemosphere has retracted two papers over authorship concerns. The problem is, we don’t really know what those concerns are. Here’s one notice:
About two years ago, Marc Duflot, a research engineer at Cenaero, heard a disturbing tale from a collaborator. The collaborator, it seemed, had been asked to review a paper submitted to a journal, and noticed that it was remarkably similar to a paper by Duflot. Duflot’s collaborator recommended that the journal reject the paper, and … Continue reading Ghost authorship? Two Meccanica retractions as an author’s work is plagiarized by disappearing scientists
Like many researchers, Frank Walboomers frequently checks the scientific databases to see when his latest publications appear. He was doing so a few months ago when he came across his name on an article — “Effects of pro-inflammatory cytokines on mineralization potential of rat dental pulp stem cells” — published online in July in the … Continue reading “Ill communication” leads to retraction of tissue paper (sorry) for authorship issues
Have you heard the story about the young, Orthodox Jewish fellow who decides to stop keeping kosher, so he goes to the local coffee shop and orders a cheeseburger with ham and bacon and a glass of milk? Some retraction notices put us in mind of that tale (true, by the way). Consider the following … Continue reading Authorship questions: Retracted infection paper from Spain broke all (well, most) of the rules
Moez Smiri, a graduate student in a Tunisian-French laboratory collaboration, clearly needed publications on his CV. But we wouldn’t recommend his solution to the problem. Smiri used cut-and-paste data (his own, to be fair) to write a flurry of manuscripts that he sent around to a variety of journals, most of them deeply obscure. And, … Continue reading Plant Science retracts paper for reused data, forged authorship
The Journal of Phytopathology has retracted a 2010 article by a French researcher who apparently misled editors about her role in preparing the manuscript. From the notice for the article, “Trade-off between Virulence and Aggressiveness in Plasmopara halstedii (Sunflower Downy Mildew),” by Nachaat Sakr: