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“[W]e can learn from these bad actors:” Trail of retractions follows former Vanderbilt researcher’s fraud

Authors have retracted three papers from the Journal of Physiology because they contained “falsified or fabricated data.” The papers, which address calcium signaling in heart muscle cells, are among the six pegged for retraction after an Office of Research Integrity (ORI) investigation into one of the authors, Igor Dzhura, formerly of Vanderbilt University. The ORI … Continue reading “[W]e can learn from these bad actors:” Trail of retractions follows former Vanderbilt researcher’s fraud

Third retraction for GWU biologist as university seeks to dismiss his $8 million lawsuit

Cancer biologist Rakesh Kumar has chalked up another retraction, this time for “identical,” “duplicated,” and “replicated” figures and images. It comes on the heels of a flurry of motions in Kumar’s $8 million lawsuit against his employer, George Washington University, for breach of contract and emotional distress because it removed him as department chair last year and … Continue reading Third retraction for GWU biologist as university seeks to dismiss his $8 million lawsuit

Chinese medical case study erased after guardian consent withdrawn

The editor of the Journal of Medical Case Reports, a BioMed Central title, has retracted and removed a case study of a novel surgical treatment after the patient’s legal guardian withdrew consent post-publication. The paper, “Novel two-stage surgical treatment for Cantrell syndrome complicated by severe pulmonary hypertension: a case report,” describes the treatment of a … Continue reading Chinese medical case study erased after guardian consent withdrawn

Trove of VA reports reveals research misconduct, medical malpractice

Last week, the Veteran Affairs Office of Inspector General released eight years of reports investigating allegations of nefarious behavior at VA hospitals and institutions around the country, ranging from mistreating a patient in Florida, misspending grant money in New York, and conducting unauthorized research in Iowa. In one report,

Former postdoc suing lab head for publishing paper he says he wrote, without his name

A pharmaceutical researcher is suing his postdoctoral advisor and former business partner, accusing him of publishing a paper in PLoS Biology they wrote together, and removing him as an author. According to the complaint, Andrew Mallon and John Marshall co-founded a company, Ardane Therapeutic, to commercialize a potential therapy that Mallon discovered for Angelman Sydrome, a … Continue reading Former postdoc suing lab head for publishing paper he says he wrote, without his name

Teflon toxicity paper fails to stick

An advanced online paper on prenatal toxicity of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), an industrial chemical used to make waterproof coatings and Teflon, is being retracted due to “some minor errors.” High blood levels of PFOA have been tied to kidney disease in humans, as well as several cancers in animal models. The majority of the U.S. … Continue reading Teflon toxicity paper fails to stick

Investigations into Voinnet’s work announced; critic publishes original peer review

The story about Olivier Voinnet, a high-profile plant biologist whose work has fallen under scrutiny, continues to build momentum. Late last week, Voinnet’s employer and one of his funders announced they were investigating his work, and one of the peer reviewers of a soon-to-be-retracted paper has made her original report public. Here’s the statement from … Continue reading Investigations into Voinnet’s work announced; critic publishes original peer review

Lawsuit involving PubPeer unmasks commenter as pseudonymous whistleblower Clare Francis

An attorney for Fazlul Sarkar, the Wayne State University researcher who claims he lost a job offer because of comments about his research on PubPeer, has asked a judge to reconsider last month’s decision not to release information about the site’s anonymous commenters. As a consequence, the brief in support of that motion identifies a … Continue reading Lawsuit involving PubPeer unmasks commenter as pseudonymous whistleblower Clare Francis

Former Columbia postdoc faked Alzheimer’s research in Cell and Nature

Ryousuke Fujita, a former Columbia University postdoc who admitted to having faked the findings of a 2011 Cell paper in a retraction notice last year, also faked the results of a 2013 Nature paper, according to a new report from the Office of Research Integrity (ORI). Fujita’s work, in conjunction with Asa Abeliovich, was widely hailed … Continue reading Former Columbia postdoc faked Alzheimer’s research in Cell and Nature

Opaque retraction notice for imaging paper

Sometimes we run across retraction notices that are vague, and others that are contorted, but we’ve just found one that gets highest marks for being completely inscrutable. The article, “Bayes Clustering and Structural Support Vector Machines for Segmentation of Carotid Artery Plaques in Multicontrast MRI,” was written by a group from China and Cambridge University … Continue reading Opaque retraction notice for imaging paper