The South African Journal of Botany has retracted a 2012 paper that claimed a variety of herbal extracts have antioxidant and anti-fungal properties, due to errors in “at least” one figure. Here’s the notice for “Contribution of herbal principles towards cytoprotective, antioxidant and anti-Rhizopus activities:”
Surface chemistry journal Langmuir has retracted an article on a new MRI contrast agent — but only one of the authors agreed. According to the notice:
A significant chapter of the nearly six-month saga of the STAP stem cell controversy has come to an end, with Nature running retraction notices for the two papers involved. The journal has also published an editorial about the case that’s worth a read. The retractions for “Bidirectional developmental potential in reprogrammed cells with acquired pluripotency” … Continue reading STAP stem cell papers officially retracted as Nature argues peer review couldn’t have detected fatal problems
The authors of a paper showing a link between immune response and depression requested a retraction after they realized they’d merged two spreadsheets with mismatching ID codes. Here’s the notice for “Lower CSF interleukin-6 predicts future depression in a population-based sample of older women followed for 17 years,” retracted in February 2014:
Benjamin Barré, a genetics researcher who recently set up his own group at the University of Angers, is retracting four papers he worked on as a graduate student and postdoc. Neil Perkins, in whose lab Barré was a postdoc, and Olivier Coqueret, in whose lab he did his PhD, tell Retraction Watch:
Another busy week at Retraction Watch, with Ivan in Seoul speaking on research integrity at the Korean Medical Association conference. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:
Pro tip: If you’re going to write about stalking, it’s probably best if you don’t get too close to your material. That’s a lesson a group of researchers in Italy was forced to learn the hard way. They lost their 2013 article in Medicine, Science and the Law for being too similar to a 2008 … Continue reading Don’t walk this way: Stalking paper halted for plagiarism
A review of past publications by the Japanese research institution RIKEN has produced three corrections of articles by a molecular geneticist, Haruhiko Koseki, The Scientist is reporting. The articles had appeared in Molecular and Cellular Biology between 2005 and 2010. The review was triggered by the scandal involving Haruko Obokata, a former RIKEN scientist whose … Continue reading RIKEN inquiry prompted by STAP stem cell controversy generates three corrections
Another busy week at Retraction Watch, which kicked off with an introduction to our first-ever intern. This coming week, Ivan will be in Zwettl, Lower Austria, speaking at the Vienna Biocenter PhD retreat, and in London, speaking at the UK Conference of Science Journalists. Here’s what’s been happening elsewhere:
Last month, we published a guest post by Jean Hazel Mendoza about the retraction of a Molecular Cell paper for sampling errors, flawed analysis, and and miscalculation. Mendoza heard back from Jean-François Allemand, the head of one of the labs involved. Allemand tells Retraction Watch by email that when his group tried to repeat the … Continue reading Update: Lab head shares “painful” process that led to Molecular Cell retraction