August 2025 – Retraction Watch
10 posts published by Retraction Watch Staff, Rita Aksenfeld, Lori Youmshajekian, Adam Marcus, and Avery Orrall during August 2025| Retraction Watch
10 posts published by Retraction Watch Staff, Rita Aksenfeld, Lori Youmshajekian, Adam Marcus, and Avery Orrall during August 2025| Retraction Watch
Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up past 500. There are more than 60,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains more than 300 titles. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most retractions lately … Continue reading Weekend reads: ChatGPT ignores retractions; the ‘Swiss Cheese Model’ for flagging papers; plagiarism in the age of AI| Retraction Watch
Four papers from a team of researchers in Japan have received expressions of concern for overlap in control samples, data, study design and statistical analyses. The publisher of the articles says it has closed its investigation. The notices were published in PLOS One from July 31 to August 3 to inform readers of “study design … Continue reading PLOS One slaps four papers with expressions of concern for overlapping control data| Retraction Watch
A prominent education researcher in Australia is demanding compensation from a critic whose claims of plagiarism triggered the university to look into his work. Although the resulting examination of work by John Hattie, director of an education research institute at the University of Melbourne, ended without a finding of misconduct, the critic, Stephen Vainker, insists … Continue reading Top education researcher goes to court over plagiarism claims, university review| Retraction Watch
A journal has retracted a 2025 paper on social media and anxiety after a reader raised questions about the data – and thanks to the mentorship of a sleuth or two. The article appeared in 2023 in BMC Psychology, a Springer Nature title. The sole author was Li Sun, whose affiliation is listed as the … Continue reading Hive mindfulness: Sleuths’ advice leads to retraction of paper on social connection| Retraction Watch
Elsevier has retracted two papers for image duplication – 13 years after the authors alerted the journal to issues with the work. The papers are the third and fourth retractions for a group of researchers in Ireland. The team had asked Elsevier journals to retract five papers in April 2012 — one of which is … Continue reading Authors asked Elsevier to retract papers in 2012. In one case, they’re still waiting.| Retraction Watch
A heart researcher from Italy has lost three papers because the articles duplicated work he had previously published. The retractions bring his tally to 17, all but one of which were for self-plagiarism. The latest retractions for Renato De Vecchis were from the Journal of Clinical Medicine Research (JCMR). JCMR is published by Elmer Press … Continue reading Cardiology researcher in Italy up to 17 retractions, most for duplication| Retraction Watch
Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up past 500. There are more than 60,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains more than 300 titles. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most retractions lately … Continue reading Weekend reads: Journal says no to RFK Jr.; another Microsoft quantum computing correction; ‘Journal Impact Nonsense’| Retraction Watch
On April Fools’ Day 10 years ago, radiologist Matt Skalski took part in a website’s annual challenge to prank the radiology community by posting the case of a man with “ectopia cordis interna,” or “Tin Man Syndrome.” Unlike the fictitious metal character from the Wizard of Oz, Skalski’s satirical patient had a heart — in … Continue reading ‘Tin Man Syndrome’ case plagiarized from hoax, sleuths say| Retraction Watch
Sage has retracted four dozen papers from one of its journals for suspected paper mill activity. The publisher started an investigation into the European Journal of Inflammation “after we noticed signs of papermill activity in one of the articles,” Laura West, a corporate communications and public affairs manager at Sage, told Retraction Watch. The investigation … Continue reading Sage journal retracts nearly 50 papers for signs of paper mill activity| Retraction Watch
George Church A paper coauthored by geneticist George Church has been retracted following an internal review at a university where several coauthors are based. The article appeared in the Proceedin…| Retraction Watch
10 posts published by Elisabeth Bik, Ivan Oransky, Victoria Stern, Alison McCook, and Mark Zastrow during February 2017| Retraction Watch
Science has retracted a 2010 paper describing a strain of bacteria that purportedly substituted arsenic for phosphorus, an element present in all known life. Science/AAAS Fifteen years after publis…| Retraction Watch
10 posts published by Kate Travis, Martin Yaffe, Retraction Watch Staff, Avery Orrall, Ellie Kincaid, and Dalmeet Singh Chawla during April 2025| Retraction Watch
A prominent cancer research lab is up to three retractions and six corrections for “highly similar” images in papers published between 2018 and 2022. The lab is led by Kounosuke Watabe at Wak…| Retraction Watch
Seven papers on various aspects of vaping and cigarettes published in Toxicology Reports listed each authors’ affiliation – the tobacco company Philip Morris International – when they origina…| Retraction Watch
3 posts published by Ellie Kincaid, Avery Orrall, and Rita Aksenfeld during July 2025| Retraction Watch
The male/female retraction ratio for Zheng and colleagues’ dataset showed that male first authors have a higher retraction rate than females. Source: E-T Zheng et al/J of Informetrics 2025 When yo…| Retraction Watch
After months of investigation that identified networks of reviewers and editors manipulating the peer review process, Hindawi plans to retract 511 papers across 16 journals, Retraction Watch has le…| Retraction Watch
The decision to abandon a process to re-evaluate a review recommending exercise therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) has reignited calls for the article to be withdrawn. The 2019 ver…| Retraction Watch
Would you pay $169 for an introductory ebook on machine learning with citations that appear to be made up? If not, you might want to pass on purchasing Mastering Machine Learning: From Basics to Ad…| Retraction Watch
COPE integrity officer loses 22-year-old paper for image concerns Slovak science academy ‘strictly condemns’ government official’s paper on mRNA vaccines Guest post: In defense of direct replicatio…| Retraction Watch
Science has changed an expression of concern on a 2022 paper to an erratum after removing one of the coauthors — who was found to have committed misconduct — and allowing the researchers to repeat …| Retraction Watch
Two Swedish agencies have closed their investigations into a high-profile research center at Chalmers University of Technology that was suspended last year for “shortcomings in the operations.”&nbs…| Retraction Watch
Journal tells author its retracting three papers for concept that ‘violates’ law of thermodynamics Apparent NCI director candidate wants ‘open, respectful’ post-publication peer review while promot…| Retraction Watch
The majority of the editorial board of a top psychology journal have resigned en masse after the publisher replaced the journal’s editors without warning. Also departing are the honorary editor and…| Retraction Watch
The BMJ’s clinical practice guideline for chronic spine pain Thirty-four medical professional societies have called for The BMJ to retract a recently published guideline recommending against …| Retraction Watch
Less than two weeks ago, PLOS ONE published a paper about the parents of teenagers who appeared to immediately start questioning their gender identity around the time of puberty. Then the critiques…| Retraction Watch
updated October 23, 2024 Welcome to the Retraction Watch Database (RWDB). We’ve prepared this document to help you get started, and to answer some questions that are likely to come up. This documen…| Retraction Watch
Today is a very big day for Retraction Watch and The Center For Scientific Integrity, our parent non-profit. Bear with me while I explain, starting with some history. When Adam Marcus and I launche…| Retraction Watch
The origin of the phrase? The phrase was so strange it would have stood out even to a non-scientist. Yet “vegetative electron microscopy” had already made it past reviewers and editors at several j…| Retraction Watch
Salon today retracted a controversial 2005 story by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. about an alleged link between autism and thimerosal, the mercury-based preservative formerly used in vaccines. As Salon ex…| Retraction Watch
Last week, we reported on a case at the University of Leiden in which the institution found that a former psychology researcher there had committed research misconduct. In the anonymized report …| Retraction Watch
Although it’s the right thing to do, it’s never easy to admit error — particularly when you’re an extremely high-profile scientist whose work is being dissected publicly. So…| Retraction Watch
Almas Heshmati Last year, a new study on green innovations and patents in 27 countries left one reader slack-jawed. The findings were no surprise. What was baffling was how the authors, two profess…| Retraction Watch
