A couple of engineers in Iran turn out to be better at predicting the “failure probability” of water pipes than of their chances of being published. Consider this retraction notice for “Estimation of failure probability in water pipes network using statistical model,” originally published in February 2011 in Engineering Failure Analysis:
A cardinal (if oft-broken) rule of headline writing is to avoid the use of question marks. We think it’s particularly important to do so when the potential for ironic misadventure lurks. To wit: The Journal of Clinical Pathology (JCP) has withdrawn/retracted a 2008 paper by a group of Indian authors (from the National Institute of … Continue reading Rabies paper retracted for plagiarism, and more from the Journal of Clinical Pathology
The authors of a paper published last September in Blood about alleged links between certain genes and Hodgkin’s lymphoma have retracted it, after realizing they’d made mistakes in their calculations. The retraction notice for “Multiple HLA class I and II associations in classical Hodgkin lymphoma and EBV status defined subgroups,” dated January 20 and signed by all … Continue reading Errors force retraction of Blood paper on genetics of Hodgkin’s lymphoma
Two crystallographers who retracted a Structure paper last year have retracted a study about a similar subject in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, for similar reasons. Here’s the notice for the paper, which has been cited 23 times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge:
The authors of a paper in the Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC) have retracted it, but don’t ask us why. This being the JBC, the retraction notice for “Human T-cell Leukemia Virus Type I Tax Down-regulates the Expression of Phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-Trisphosphate Inositol Phosphatases via the NF-κB Pathway” is the very definition of opaque:
Is retracting a paper like shutting the barn door after the horses have bolted? Sadly, that’s a more apt metaphor than we’d like for a retraction in Equine Veterinary Journal of a short paper about efforts to save Przewalski’s horses, an endangered species closely related to domestic horses. Here’s the notice:
Silvia Bulfone-Paus, the Borstel Institute researcher who was forced to step down as institute director and has already retracted 12 papers, has retracted another, this one in Transplantation. Here’s the text of the notice:
A retraction notice appeared a few months ago in the Biophysical Journal: This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy). This article has been retracted at the request of Edward Egelman, Editor-in-Chief. The editors have noted that there is a substantial overlap of figures and text between this Biophysical Journal … Continue reading Why editors should stop ignoring anonymous whistleblowers: Our latest LabTimes column
In late January, we wrote a post about a retraction in the journal Molecular Endocrinology involving work from the lab of Stephen M. Black, of the Vascular Biology Center at at the Medical College of Georgia. At the time, we didn’t know much. The notice was pretty thin sauce, although it hinted at “significant concerns … Continue reading New retraction sheds light on Medical College of Georgia vascular biology case
Alirio Melendez, whose former employer, the National University of Singapore, is investigating about 70 of his papers, has retracted a second study. Here’s the notice for the 2010 Journal of Molecular Cell Biology paper, “Sphingosine-1-phosphate mediates proliferation maintaining the multipotency of human Adult Bone Marrow and Adipose Tissue-derived Stem Cells:”