The retraction total for Naoki Mori continues to rise. The October issue of Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications has retracted a 2007 paper by Mori et al for the same issues — manipulated images — that brought down the 20-odd other papers of his since the scandal broke in late December. Here’s the notice for … Continue reading Another retraction for Naoki Mori (make that 23?)
Margaret Munro, a Postmedia News reporter whose work we’ve had the chance to admire before, has a few great stories running in Canadian papers today about what happened in some recent scientific fraud investigations. She bases the stories on Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) documents obtained under a freedom of information request. NSERC — … Continue reading Unveiled: Anonymous researcher found guilty of fraud in Canadian funding agency documents
Ten days ago, we reported on the dismissal of Zhiguo Wang, a Montreal Heart Institute researcher who had already retracted two papers because of image manipulation. At the time, an official said the institute had requested three more retractions, but when we asked which three papers, we were told: As written in the press release, the MHI has … Continue reading Third retraction from dismissed Montreal cardiology researcher Zhiguo Wang appears
A completely unhelpful retraction notice appears in the September issue of Molecular Biology and Evolution for “Investigating the Role of Natural Selection on Coding Sequence Evolution in Salmonids Through NGS Data Mining,” a paper first published in March. Here’s the entire notice for the paper — which has been removed completely from the journal’s site, … Continue reading Author of retracted Molecular Biology and Evolution paper explains opaque notice that’ll still cost you $32
At least four retractions have appeared involving the work of a group of Japanese researchers who appear to have reused figures — and doctored them — in multiple manuscripts. The authors, led by Yoshiyuki Hattori, of Dokkyo University School of Medicine in Mibu (whose motto, by the way, is “where character is developed through learning” … Continue reading New retractions of diabetes, cardiovascular papers from Japan involve repeat use of figures
The American Journal of Psychiatry has issued an Expression of Concern about a 2003 paper that was apparently simultaneously submitted to a German-language journal. According to the notice in the August 2011 issue of the journal (link added):
Kalasalingam University in India has fired a professor who last month blamed unethical students for data manipulation that forced the retraction of three papers amid questions about five more. As Krishna Pillai of the K2P blog reports, Sangiliyandi Gurunathan, head of Kalasalingam’s biotechnology department, was asked to resign, and did so on Friday, August 5. Kalasalingam also revoked … Continue reading India’s Kalasalingam University swiftly fires professor, kicks out six students after data manipulation scandal
There’s another retraction in the the complicated case of Milena Penkowa, the former University of Copenhagen researcher being investigated for scientific misconduct and misuse of grant funds. The paper, in Experimental Physiology, was titled “Exercise-induced metallothionein expression in human skeletal muscle fibres” and was published online in January 2005. It’s the second retraction for Penkowa, … Continue reading Another retraction for Milena Penkowa, this one in Experimental Physiology
A group of Turkish researchers has retracted a paper purporting to show a method of calculating the thermodynamic properties of certain transition metals, because it was plagiarized from another article. The withdrawn paper, “A simple analytical EAM model for some bcc metals,” was published in 2010 in Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation. Here’s the … Continue reading Plagiarism forces retraction of mathematical modeling paper
The laboratory of Michael Hertl, a German dermatology researcher with an international reputation, is under investigation for possible misconduct, according to a legal official at Hertl’s institution, Philipps-Universitat Marburg. The acknowledgement was prompted by our query earlier this week about a 2008 paper from Hertl’s group that had been retracted by the journal Immunology. According … Continue reading University investigating leading German derm lab that retracted Immunology paper