The week at Retraction Watch featured a retraction of a state senator’s paper, and an editor busted for citation boosting. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:
It’s been a busy few months for Brian Wansink, a prominent food researcher at Cornell University. A blog post he wrote in November prompted a huge backlash from readers who accused him of using problematic research methods to produce questionable data, and a group of researchers suggested four of his papers contained 150 inconsistencies. The scientist has … Continue reading “Social science isn’t definitive like chemistry:” Embattled food researcher defends his work
A researcher in Greece has issued extensive — what we sometimes call “mega” — corrections to two 2016 papers published in a medical journal in Romania. The first author — Alexandra Kalogeraki, a pathology researcher at the University of Crete in Greece — retracted two reviews from the same journal last year for plagiarism. The newest notices … Continue reading Researcher issues massive changes to papers amidst plagiarism investigation
A psychoanalyst has retracted an award-winning 2016 paper over concerns that it contained “sensitive” patient information. On July 15, Judith L. Mitrani, a psychoanalyst based in California, published an article that included “sensitive clinical material” about a patient. Although we do not know what prompted the concerns, on November 21, Mitrani, in agreement with the journal’s editor-in-chief and publisher, … Continue reading Does a paywall protect patient privacy?
The week at Retraction Watch featured the retraction of a psychology paper because of manipulation by an unnamed graduate student, and a tale about the cost of being a whistleblower, even when you’re successful. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:
Doing research is hard. Getting statistically significant results is hard. Making sure the results you obtain reflect reality is even harder. In this week’s Science, Eric Loken at the University of Connecticut and Andrew Gelman at Columbia University debunk some common myths about the use of statistics in research — and argue that, in many … Continue reading Why traditional statistics are often “counterproductive to research the human sciences”
A study examining whether the verb tense you use to describe a positive or negative experience influences your current mood will be retracted after a university investigation found the data had been manipulated. By whom is the question — the notice cites an unnamed graduate student as the source of the manipulation, and says the … Continue reading Study about words’ effect on mood to be retracted after investigation finds evidence of data manipulation
It’s been a long and winding road for a whistleblower at Indiana University, South Bend. After Mark Fox, a professor of management and entrepreneurship accused two business professors of plagiarism in 2012, a university investigation found one of the two men — Douglas Agbetsiafa, the former chair of the economics department — guilty of plagiarism, and … Continue reading Whistleblower gets court backing in defamation case — but at a cost
The week at Retraction Watch featured the launch of the greatest journal ever, and a story about the backlash against widely covered research on why men eat more. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:
After a research group submitted two similar papers only days apart to different journals, one journal has retracted the paper — and told the other it should do the same. The papers, by a group of authors based in Romania, describe a new polymer to stop the formation of biofilms. After a reader flagged the … Continue reading Researchers submit two similar papers 8 days apart; one is retracted