Come again? “Penile Strangulation by Metallic Rings” retracted for duplication

The Indian Journal of Surgery, a Springer-Verlag title, has retracted a 2011 paper with a title only the Marquis de Sade would love: “Penile Strangulation by Metallic Rings.” We know what you’re saying: Who knew penises could be strangulated? Well, it’s true.

Autism genetics papers retracted after fraud inquiry at NY research agency

A fraud investigation at a New York state research institution has led to two retractions of papers looking at genetic links to autism. The 2011 papers, which appeared in Genes, Brain and Behavior, involve work conducted at the New York State Office for People With Developmental Disabilities’ (OPWDD’s) Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities, … Continue reading Autism genetics papers retracted after fraud inquiry at NY research agency

21-year-old article on the sex lives of women with cancer retracted for data misuse

Here’s one for the way-back machine. The Annual Review of Sex Research (which is a supplement to the Journal of Sex Research) has retracted a 1992 paper by a group of researchers who lifted much of their analysis from two even older articles by another scholar. At 21 years post-publication, this is one of the … Continue reading 21-year-old article on the sex lives of women with cancer retracted for data misuse

A masterbatch: More polymer retractions, gerontology journal lifts paywall, Microbiology notices appear

Our mothers told us that if we used the masterbatch process, we’d go blind. And what better way to gather some updates to recent posts than to include one that involves said masterbatch process? First, a retraction John Spevacek noticed when he tried clicking on the link in a Journal of Applied Polymer Science retraction we’d … Continue reading A masterbatch: More polymer retractions, gerontology journal lifts paywall, Microbiology notices appear

Four papers about gaming and virtual worlds become more virtual and less reality as they’re retracted

The International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction has retracted four papers about virtual reality for reasons that aren’t quite clear. The common author of the studies is Dong-Hee Shin of Seoul’s Sungkyunkwan University. Here’s the retraction notice, which is signed by journal editors-in-chief Gavriel Salvendy and Julie Jacko:

A mega-correction for Rui Curi, whose lawyers threatened to sue Science-Fraud.org

A Brazilian researcher whose legal threats helped lead to the shutdown of Science-Fraud.org and who has had two papers retracted has had to correct another paper. The fourth correction for Rui Curi — and we’d call it a mega-correction — is of a paper in PLOS ONE. Curi is the fourth out of 11 authors; … Continue reading A mega-correction for Rui Curi, whose lawyers threatened to sue Science-Fraud.org

Updated: Integrity “uncertain,” journal retracts stroke paper

Experimental & Molecular Medicine has retracted a 2012 paper on stroke by a group of South Korean researchers after learning that one of the figures in the article was unreliable. The article was titled “Protective effects of transduced Tat-DJ-1 protein against oxidative stress and ischemic brain injury,” and it came from a team at Hallym … Continue reading Updated: Integrity “uncertain,” journal retracts stroke paper

A partial retraction appears for former Salzburg crystallographer who admitted misconduct

A paper by a crystallographer fired from his university for misconduct has been partially retracted. Last year, we covered the case of Robert Schwarzenbacher, formerly of Salzburg University. Schwarzenbacher had provided the crystallographic data for a paper in the Journal of Immunology, but those results raised questions with another crystallographer and prompted an investigation by … Continue reading A partial retraction appears for former Salzburg crystallographer who admitted misconduct

Tenth retraction appears for Jesús Lemus, this one in PLOS ONE

Just two days ago, we covered the ninth retraction for Jesús Lemus, “the veterinary researcher whose work colleagues have had trouble verifying, including being unable to confirm the identity of one of his co-authors.” And already another of his retractions has appeared in one of our daily alerts. This one appears in PLOS ONE, for … Continue reading Tenth retraction appears for Jesús Lemus, this one in PLOS ONE

Update: Microbiologists face two more retractions for Northern blot problems

We have an update on a case we reported last week involving four papers in two different journals. The Journal of Bacteriology retracted two papers by Carlos Barreiro and colleagues, in notices that referred to the fact that …identical bands for the 16S rRNA probe controls in the Northern blots were reported to correspond to … Continue reading Update: Microbiologists face two more retractions for Northern blot problems