Title: Assessment of coronary heart diseases in diabetics in al-Madinah al-Munawarah What Caught Our Notice: We’ve seen researchers dinged for adding authors to papers who didn’t participate in the research, but it’s rare to have a notice say co-author signatures were forged. In a recent retraction, the first two authors said the signatures on the the … Continue reading Caught Our Notice: Wait…we wrote WHAT paper?
The publisher Frontiers has retracted four papers in three of its journals after discovering they had been accepted with fake peer reviews. The problem of fake reviews has been on the research community’s radar since at least 2014, and several major publishers—including Springer, SAGE and BioMed Central—have retracted hundreds of papers accepted via fake peer … Continue reading Publisher issues first retractions for fake peer review, starts new checking policy
The week at Retraction Watch featured a the story of how a nonexistent paper earned 400 ciations, a lawsuit filed against a journal for publishing criticism, and the retraction and replacement of a paper by a group of anti-vaccine advocates. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:
A $10 million defamation suit filed by a Stanford University professor against a critic and a journal may be an assault on free speech, according to one lawyer, but at least it’s “well written.” Kenneth White, a lawyer at Southern California firm Brown White & Osborn who frequently blogs about legal issues related to free … Continue reading Lawyers call libel suit against journal and critic “lawless” but “well written”
The week at Retraction Watch featured mass resignations from a journal’s editorial board, software that writes papers for you, and a retracted retraction. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:
Following heavy criticism of its decision to correct — instead of retract — a paper accused of plagiarism, Scientific Reports is adding an editor’s note to the paper and forming a committee to review the case. The 2016 paper in question has been accused of plagiarism by a researcher at Johns Hopkins, Michael Beer. Following … Continue reading Journal to assemble “senior editorial committee” to review paper that led to board resignations
The week at Retraction Watch featured a revoked PhD, more news about Paolo Macchiarini, and a head-scratcher about a retraction involving astronauts. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:
Two journals have retracted five recent papers by a researcher in Saudi Arabia after discovering extensive overlap, which one journal called plagiarism. In one retracted paper, all schemes and figures are copies from other publications; in another, more than half of the figures are lifted. The journal that retracted the other three papers did not … Continue reading Author loses five recent papers for copying multiple figures, unspecified “overlap”
Title: Promoting child-initiated social-communication in children with autism: Son-Rise Program intervention effects What caught our attention: When journalist Brendan Borrell was investigating a controversial autism treatment program for Spectrum, he came across a study where lead author Kat Houghton failed to disclose a prior relationship with the treatment center that taught the program, called Son-Rise. The Spectrum article notes:
The week at Retraction Watch featured a retraction by a Nobel laureate, the eight excuses journal editors hear in responses to questions about data, and a description of a “disease” that affects many scientists. Here’s what was happening elsewhere: