Search Results for: authorship

“Ill communication” leads to retraction of tissue paper (sorry) for authorship issues

Like many researchers, Frank Walboomers frequently checks the scientific databases to see when his latest publications appear. He was doing so a few months ago when he came across his name on an article — “Effects of pro-inflammatory cytokines on mineralization potential of rat dental pulp stem cells” — published online in July in the … Continue reading “Ill communication” leads to retraction of tissue paper (sorry) for authorship issues

Authorship questions: Retracted infection paper from Spain broke all (well, most) of the rules

Have you heard the story about the young, Orthodox Jewish fellow who decides to stop keeping kosher, so he goes to the local coffee shop and orders a cheeseburger with ham and bacon and a glass of milk? Some retraction notices put us in mind of that tale (true, by the way). Consider the following … Continue reading Authorship questions: Retracted infection paper from Spain broke all (well, most) of the rules

Plant Science retracts paper for reused data, forged authorship

Moez Smiri, a graduate student in a Tunisian-French laboratory collaboration, clearly needed publications on his CV. But we wouldn’t recommend his solution to the problem. Smiri used cut-and-paste data (his own, to be fair) to write a flurry of manuscripts that he sent around to a variety of journals, most of them deeply obscure. And, … Continue reading Plant Science retracts paper for reused data, forged authorship

Plant paper pulled over authorship concerns

The Journal of Phytopathology has retracted a 2010 article by a French researcher who apparently misled editors about her role in preparing the manuscript. From the notice for the article, “Trade-off between Virulence and Aggressiveness in Plasmopara halstedii (Sunflower Downy Mildew),” by Nachaat Sakr:

We wrote what? The problem of forged authorship. Plus, a guest appearance on MedPage Today

At a time when you can set up a Google alert to find out when your name appears anywhere on the Web — not that we’d know, of course — it puzzles us that some researchers are trying to get away with using others’ names on papers without their knowledge. But they’re not just trying. … Continue reading We wrote what? The problem of forged authorship. Plus, a guest appearance on MedPage Today

Duplicate publication and apparent guest authorship force retractions of two math papers

Two math journals have recently retracted two papers that share most of their text — and their first author. The two papers were “Unsteady flows of an Oldroyd-B fluid in a cylindrical domain for a given shear stress,” in Applied Mathematics and Computation, and “A note on longitudinal flows of an Oldroyd-B fluid due to … Continue reading Duplicate publication and apparent guest authorship force retractions of two math papers

Remembering Mario Biagioli, who articulated how scholarly metrics lead to fraud

Mario Biagioli, a distinguished professor of law and communication at the University of California, Los Angeles — and a pioneering thinker about how academic reward systems incentivize misconduct — passed away in May after a long illness. He was 69.  Among other intellectual interests, Biagioli wrote frequently about the (presumably) unintended consequences of using metrics … Continue reading Remembering Mario Biagioli, who articulated how scholarly metrics lead to fraud

Do men or women retract more often? A new study weighs in

When you look at retracted papers, you find more men than women among the authors. But more papers are authored by men than women overall. A recent study comparing retraction rates, not just absolute numbers, among first and corresponding authors confirms that men retract disproportionally more papers than women.  The paper, published May 20 in … Continue reading Do men or women retract more often? A new study weighs in

Science issues correction on a paper after repeat experiments and misconduct finding

Science has changed an expression of concern on a 2022 paper to an erratum after removing one of the coauthors — who was found to have committed misconduct — and allowing the researchers to repeat experiments. The paper, “Structural basis for strychnine activation of human bitter taste receptor TAS2R46,” has been cited 68 times, according … Continue reading Science issues correction on a paper after repeat experiments and misconduct finding

Guest post: In defense of direct replication studies (if they even need defending)

Editor’s note: This guest post by Csaba Szabo is a response to a June 3 post by Mike Rossner on replication studies. We sent a draft to Rossner in advance; find his response below. The recent guest post on Retraction Watch by Mike Rossner takes a peculiar view of reproducibility. Rossner sets the stage talking … Continue reading Guest post: In defense of direct replication studies (if they even need defending)