For the first time in its eight-year history, Nature Chemistry has retracted a paper, citing “data integrity issues.” The 2010 paper, which explored how various iron-based molecules interact with water and ethanol, was withdrawn after the authors uncovered possible duplication in two images. According to the retraction notice, the authors could not provide the raw … Continue reading Nature Chemistry issues its first retraction
A once-rising star in stem cell biology — who recently lost both her job and a sizable grant — has had a fourth paper retracted. The notice — issued by Nature for a 2006 letter — cites duplicated images, and a lack of raw data to verify the findings. First author Susana Gonzalez — who … Continue reading Nature retracts paper by stem cell scientist appealing her dismissal
Statisticians are mounting a challenge to a much-publicized study suggesting that human lifespan has a limit of approximately 115 years — 125, tops. Published last October in Nature, the study from scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York was the eleventh most talked-about piece of research in 2016, according to Altmetric. The … Continue reading Widely publicized Nature study on human age limit draws fire
A former researcher at Johns Hopkins who voiced concerns about a now-retracted paper in Nature has lost another bid for whistleblower protection. Daniel Yuan, a longtime statistician for former Hopkins yeast geneticist Jef Boeke, was dismissed in 2011, after he’d spent years raising concerns about research coming out of the lab. Yuan’s criticisms, which continued … Continue reading Would-be Johns Hopkins whistleblower loses appeal in case involving Nature retraction
Despite taking some serious hits, a 2006 letter in Nature isn’t going anywhere. Years ago, a university committee determined that two figures in the letter had been falsified. The journal chose to correct the paper, rather than retract it — and then, the next year, published a correction of that correction due to “an error … Continue reading Nature paper adds non-reproducibility to its list of woes
In 2011, authors of a Nature letter caught some flak for issuing a lengthy correction to a neuroscience paper that had raised eyebrows within days of publication — including some suggestions it should be retracted. The correction notice, published months after the original letter, cited errors in image choice and labeling, but asserted the conclusions remained valid. Now, those … Continue reading Nature paper with massive correction can’t be reproduced, says independent group
The authors of a highly cited 2015 paper in Nature Materials have retracted it, after being unable to reproduce some of the key findings. The move prompted the journal to also retract an associated News & Views article. Here’s the retraction notice for “Fast and long-range triplet exciton diffusion in metal–organic frameworks for photon upconversion at ultralow … Continue reading Lack of reproducibility triggers retractions of Nature Materials articles
The week at Retraction Watch featured a refreshingly honest retraction, and a big win for PubPeer. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:
Nature Biotechnology has issued an editorial expression of concern (EOC) for a widely criticized study describing a potentially invaluable new lab tool. The EOC mentions the lack of reproducibility of the gene-editing technique, known as NgAgo. Alongside it, the journal has published a correspondence which includes data from three separate research groups that cast doubt on … Continue reading Controversial gene-editing study flagged by Nature journal
Last week, we learned a 2016 paper heavily discussed on PubPeer might be retracted — today, we learned that Nature Cell Biology has indeed pulled the paper, citing inappropriate image modifications. As we reported last week, a comment on PubPeer flagged as coming from an author said they had requested a retraction. A representative of National … Continue reading Nature Cell Biology retracts hotly debated cancer paper