Search Results for: mathematics

Author withdraws entire issue after overseeing his own peer review

The editor and author of most of the papers in a special issue of a math journal told us he is withdrawing the entire issue following revelations that he had coordinated the peer-review process. The articles, published online earlier this year, recently received an expression of concern after the journal realized the guest editor David Gao, at the Federation University Australia, … Continue reading Author withdraws entire issue after overseeing his own peer review

Author’s coordination of peer review flags 13 math papers

Thirteen papers in Mathematics and Mechanics of Solids now have an expression of concern, after it came to light that an author on most of the papers coordinated the peer-review process. David Y. Gao, a well-known and prolific mathematician at the Federation University Australia, is the author of 11 of the papers, and also the guest editor of … Continue reading Author’s coordination of peer review flags 13 math papers

1+1 “identical” math papers = retraction

A paper on an equation useful in finance has been retracted after editors discovered an “identical” version had been published in another journal. The paper, “On the Parametric Interest of the Black-Scholes Equation,” was published in the Thai Journal of Mathematics. According to the introduction, that equation has a practical use: In financial mathematics, the famous … Continue reading 1+1 “identical” math papers = retraction

Plagiarism count for mathematician updated to four papers

After we reported on a retraction for a 13-year old paper by Mohammed Aassila, a reader alerted us to two retractions and an editorial notice for the mathematician. Each of the notes is several years old. That makes a total of four problematic papers for Aassila. Each is plagued by the same thing: plagiarism. Here is … Continue reading Plagiarism count for mathematician updated to four papers

Duplication of “a major part of text and results” adds up to third retraction for mathematician

An article by Alexander Spivak, a mathematician based in Israel, is being retracted from the proceedings of a 2014 numerical analysis meeting because Spivak had already published “a major part of text and results” in a mathematics journal in 2010. Spivak, a member of the faculty of sciences at Holon Institute of Technology, has a bit of a … Continue reading Duplication of “a major part of text and results” adds up to third retraction for mathematician

Weekend reads: “Academic science isn’t sexist;” buying your way into university rankings

The week at Retraction Watch began with news of a lawsuit against PubPeer commenters. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

Blatant plagiarism sinks paper (and earns a sabbatical!) for mathematician

You know it’s a good one when it makes it onto the Wikipedia page for “scientific misconduct.” On April 21, the International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics retracted two 2008 papers by scientist Alexander Spivak of Holon Institute of Technology in Israel. In September, the journal updated the notice to explain why: The papers both … Continue reading Blatant plagiarism sinks paper (and earns a sabbatical!) for mathematician

“Positivity ratio” research now subject to an expression of concern

An expression of concern has been issued for the second of three papers on the idea that, if you have three positive emotions for every negative one, you will be more successful in life. Psychologist Barbara Fredrickson, of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, has spent the last decade building a brand around this ratio, … Continue reading “Positivity ratio” research now subject to an expression of concern

Springer fake paper tally up to 18

We have some updates on the case of more than 120 fake SCIgen conference proceedings papers that slipped into IEEE and Springer journals.

Springer, IEEE withdrawing more than 120 nonsense papers

Two major publishers will remove more than 120 papers created with random paper generator SCIgen, according to Nature. Richard van Noorden, who has the scoop, reports: