BioMed Central retracting 43 papers for fake peer review

BioMed Central is retracting 43 papers, following their investigation into 50 papers that raised suspicions of fake peer review, possibly involving third-party companies selling the service. In November 2014 we wrote about fake peer reviews for Nature; at that point there had been about 110 retractions across several journals. The addition of 16 retractions by Elsevier for … Continue reading BioMed Central retracting 43 papers for fake peer review

Bitter herbs: Parsley paper retracted after authors omit colleague

A pair of plant experts at Uludag University, in Turkey, has lost a paper on techniques for drying parsley because they evidently left a key contributor off the manuscript. The article, “Effect of Vacuum, Microwave, and Convective Drying on Selected Parsley Quality,” was published online in June 2011 by the International Journal of Food Properties. … Continue reading Bitter herbs: Parsley paper retracted after authors omit colleague

Retractions follow revelations of misconduct by diabetes biotech

Several months after a drug company cancelled development of a potential diabetes cure because it found evidence that a biotech they had recently acquired had committed misconduct in studies of the drug, two retractions of relevant studies have appeared. The research involves DiaPep277, which, as Josh Levy explained here in September, “would cause the immune system … Continue reading Retractions follow revelations of misconduct by diabetes biotech

Are companies selling fake peer reviews to help papers get published?

Faked peer reviews — a subject about which we’ve been writing more and more recently — are concerning enough to a number of publishers that they’ve approached the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) to work together on a solution. In the past, we have reported on a number of cases in which authors were able … Continue reading Are companies selling fake peer reviews to help papers get published?

Publisher discovers 50 manuscripts involving fake peer reviewers

BioMed Central has uncovered about fifty manuscripts in their editorial system that involved fake peer reviewers, Retraction Watch has learned. Most of the cases were not published because they were discovered by a manuscript editor on a final pre-publication check. The five or so that have been published will go through some sort of re-review, … Continue reading Publisher discovers 50 manuscripts involving fake peer reviewers

“Significant” copying forces retraction of sternotomy paper

Interactive Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery has yanked a 2005 sternotomy paper by a group of researchers who plagiarized from an earlier article on the subject. The article, “The complications of repeat median sternotomy in paediatrics: six-months follow-up of consecutive cases,” came from a team at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester, England, and has been cited eight … Continue reading “Significant” copying forces retraction of sternotomy paper

A new partner for Retraction Watch: PRE (Peer Review Evaluation)

We’re very pleased to announce that we’ve partnered with PRE (Peer Review Evaluation) to improve access to information about retraction policies. In the coming months, we’ll be publishing guidelines for what we think should be included in retraction notices, and on how those notices should be publicized. As a release describing the new partnership notes:

Leadership journal to retract five papers from FIU scholar

Retraction Watch has learned that The Leadership Quarterly, a management journal published by Elsevier, plans to retract five papers by a Florida researcher poised to “rock” the field — but probably not quite in the way a press release intended — whose findings in the articles were questioned by readers. The scholar, Fred O. Walumbwa, … Continue reading Leadership journal to retract five papers from FIU scholar

DMCA notice forces removal of post critical of author who threatened to sue Retraction Watch

A blog post at another site that picked up on our coverage of Benjamin Jacob Hayempour, the researcher who has two retractions and has threatened to sue us, has been removed following a Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice. As Andrew Oh-Willkie, the blogger, writes in an account of the incident:

Papers on potential cancer drugs retracted for image manipulation

A group of researchers at the Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York has retracted two papers for image manipulation. The retraction notices for “PM02734 (Elisidepsin) Induces Caspase-Independent Cell Death Associated with Features of Autophagy, Inhibition of the Akt/mTOR Signaling Pathway, and Activation of Death-Associated Protein Kinase” and “The Phosphatase Inhibitor Menadione (Vitamin … Continue reading Papers on potential cancer drugs retracted for image manipulation