Articles, like lawn furniture, aren’t supposed to rust after just two months. But the Journal of Materials Chemistry A has issued an Expression of Concern for a February 2014 paper by a group of chemists from India over possible problems with several figures in the article. The paper, “Hierarchically macro/mesostructured porous copper oxide: Facile synthesis, … Continue reading Expression of Concern tarnishes copper oxide paper
Last year, we reported on a Nature correction of a paper for what a McGill University committee had earlier called “intentionally contrived and falsified” figures. It turns out that the correction — like the original paper — left some Nature readers puzzled, so the journal has run a correction of the correction:
Dirk Smeesters, the former psychology professor at Erasmus University found to have committed misconduct, has had another paper retracted. Here’s the notice:
Back in January 2013, we wrote about the retraction of a paper in Diabetes that the authors had “submitted without knowledge of inherent errors or abnormalities that they recognized in retrospect after submission.” Now, Molecular Pain has retracted a paper by the same authors, this time for data manipulation. The article, “Comparison of central versus … Continue reading Pain study retracted for bogus data is second withdrawal for University of Calgary group
Last September we wrote about the case of Mart Bax, an anthropologist once of the Free University in Amsterdam who allegedly fabricated elements in some of his papers, and claimed to have written more than 60 that do not exist: Bax, who studied an Irish town he called Patricksville, a Dutch pilgrimage site he called … Continue reading First retraction appears for Dutch anthropologist Mart Bax
We guess that if you are the fox in charge of the chicken coop, you might be tempted to try to get away with the kind of thing we describe in this post. But here’s an example of why such a cozy relationship can lead to, well, nutty developments. Coconuts, that is. The Journal of … Continue reading Sexism charge hits proteomics journal — and you’ll see why
On Wednesday, we reported on a Nature retraction of a paper whose corresponding author had also had a Cell paper retracted, and had been found to have committed a “violation of academic integrity” by Utrecht University. Today, we present the back story of how those retractions came to be, from another co-author of both papers, … Continue reading “I am deeply saddened and disturbed:” Co-author of retracted Nature paper reveals how problems came to light
A 2013 paper in Nature that was among those whose first or last author had committed a “violation of academic integrity,” according to Utrecht University, has been retracted. Here’s the notice: for “CLASP-mediated cortical microtubule organization guides PIN polarization axis,” whose corresponding author was Pankaj Dhonukshe:
Erasmus University in Rotterdam has issued its final report on psychologist Dirk Smeesters, concluding that the former Erasmus faculty member had committed research misconduct in a total of seven papers. Three of those articles already have been retracted in the case, as we reported in December 2012. The committee investigation is in fact a follow-up … Continue reading Final report in Smeesters case serves up seven retractions
Chemist Sanjeeb Kumar Sahoo, of the Institute of Life Sciences in Bhubaneswar, India, has earned his sixth retraction for image shennanigans, this time in Applied Materials & Interfaces. Sahoo, as we reported last year, had lost five articles in Acta Biomaterialia for what the journal called “highly unethical practices.” The latest retraction involves an article … Continue reading SK Sahoo notches sixth retraction