The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine has retracted a 2012 paper by a group of pediatric gut researchers in Naples, Italy, who seemed to have had a visceral reaction to using their own words. The paper, “Composition and roles of intestinal microbiota in children,” sought to provide an update of the advantages of new-generation … Continue reading Near “word-to-word” similarities topple microflora paper
Over the past week, there have been a number of comments on PubPeer — a site of which we’re big fans — about a 2007 paper in Oncogene. The comments suggested that the figures in the paper had problems. Some bands seemed to be duplicated, and one of the images looked very much like that … Continue reading Brutal honesty: Author takes to PubPeer to announce retraction — and tells us she’ll lose PhD, professorship
The Journal of Biological Chemistry has an illuminating retraction notice — we’re happy to be able to say — about a 2001 article from a group of researchers at the National University of Singapore. The paper, “Intracellular acidification triggered by mitochondrial-derived hydrogen peroxide is an effector mechanism for drug-induced apoptosis in tumor cells,” was written … Continue reading Data highjinx forces retraction of tumor paper in JBC
Articles, like lawn furniture, aren’t supposed to rust after just two months. But the Journal of Materials Chemistry A has issued an Expression of Concern for a February 2014 paper by a group of chemists from India over possible problems with several figures in the article. The paper, “Hierarchically macro/mesostructured porous copper oxide: Facile synthesis, … Continue reading Expression of Concern tarnishes copper oxide paper
Last year, we reported on a Nature correction of a paper for what a McGill University committee had earlier called “intentionally contrived and falsified” figures. It turns out that the correction — like the original paper — left some Nature readers puzzled, so the journal has run a correction of the correction:
Dirk Smeesters, the former psychology professor at Erasmus University found to have committed misconduct, has had another paper retracted. Here’s the notice:
Back in January 2013, we wrote about the retraction of a paper in Diabetes that the authors had “submitted without knowledge of inherent errors or abnormalities that they recognized in retrospect after submission.” Now, Molecular Pain has retracted a paper by the same authors, this time for data manipulation. The article, “Comparison of central versus … Continue reading Pain study retracted for bogus data is second withdrawal for University of Calgary group
Last September we wrote about the case of Mart Bax, an anthropologist once of the Free University in Amsterdam who allegedly fabricated elements in some of his papers, and claimed to have written more than 60 that do not exist: Bax, who studied an Irish town he called Patricksville, a Dutch pilgrimage site he called … Continue reading First retraction appears for Dutch anthropologist Mart Bax
We guess that if you are the fox in charge of the chicken coop, you might be tempted to try to get away with the kind of thing we describe in this post. But here’s an example of why such a cozy relationship can lead to, well, nutty developments. Coconuts, that is. The Journal of … Continue reading Sexism charge hits proteomics journal — and you’ll see why
On Wednesday, we reported on a Nature retraction of a paper whose corresponding author had also had a Cell paper retracted, and had been found to have committed a “violation of academic integrity” by Utrecht University. Today, we present the back story of how those retractions came to be, from another co-author of both papers, … Continue reading “I am deeply saddened and disturbed:” Co-author of retracted Nature paper reveals how problems came to light