Exclusive: OSU investigation finds dishonesty and “permissive culture of data manipulation” in cancer research lab

A university investigation found an emeritus professor had committed research misconduct after reviewing dozens of allegations, culminating in a recommendation to retract 10 papers and revoke his emeritus status.  The Ohio State University investigated 20 manuscripts by the cancer research group of Samson Jacob after the university received allegations in 2017 of image manipulation stretching … Continue reading Exclusive: OSU investigation finds dishonesty and “permissive culture of data manipulation” in cancer research lab

Exclusive: How a researcher faked data and gaslit a labmate for years

Sometime in early 2019, a postdoc in a veterinary microbiology lab at Washington State University (WSU) in Pullman came to suspect that a research assistant in her lab was fabricating data. The postdoc had noticed that the research assistant’s experiments always produced positive results, while hers were always negative. And the experiments she performed with … Continue reading Exclusive: How a researcher faked data and gaslit a labmate for years

Exclusive: Urology researcher demoted after misconduct investigation — then becomes chair at another school

A urology researcher at Louisiana State University lost his post as department chair after a misconduct investigation, Retraction Watch has learned. But he eventually moved on to be department chair at a different LSU campus — where he remains today. In June, we reported that the work of urology researcher Hari Koul had been investigated … Continue reading Exclusive: Urology researcher demoted after misconduct investigation — then becomes chair at another school

Exclusive: Six years after a misconduct investigation, more than half of suspect papers remain unflagged

When the University of Colorado at Denver completed an investigation in 2015 into the work of a former faculty member, the school recommended that nine papers be corrected or retracted. But six years after the close of that investigation, the researcher, urologist Hari Koul, has had just two papers retracted and one corrected.  Multiple journal … Continue reading Exclusive: Six years after a misconduct investigation, more than half of suspect papers remain unflagged

Exclusive: Ohio State researcher kept six-figure job for more than a year after a misconduct finding

In 2016, Mingjun Zhang, a biomedical engineering researcher at The Ohio State University, along with collaborators, published a paper that explored the mechanism behind ivy’s impressive adhesive strength. In it, the authors claimed to report the genetic sequences of the proteins making up the adhesive. The paper, entitled “Nanospherical arabinogalactan proteins are a key component … Continue reading Exclusive: Ohio State researcher kept six-figure job for more than a year after a misconduct finding

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“The most horrific time of my career.” What do you do when you realize years of your published work is built on an error?

In September 2019 Nicola Smith, a molecular pharmacologist in Australia, faced a brutal decision. She’d realized that she’d made a mistake — or rather, failed to catch a mistake in her group’s research before the crippling error was published — in two academic articles which were the culmination of years of work. And she could … Continue reading “The most horrific time of my career.” What do you do when you realize years of your published work is built on an error?

The ‘Iran Connection’: A ring of four research groups has published hundreds of dodgy papers, says whistleblower

A scheme of far-reaching research misconduct among several groups of Iranian researchers may have created hundreds of low-quality and fraudulent publications, according to a new detailed report by an anonymous whistleblower who has already forced the retraction of dozens of papers by one author in the ring. The whistleblower, who goes by the pseudonym Artemisia … Continue reading The ‘Iran Connection’: A ring of four research groups has published hundreds of dodgy papers, says whistleblower

Consumer researcher leaves Pitt after retractions for data anomalies

A brand researcher has parted ways with the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh, Retraction Watch has learned. The researcher, Nicole Verrochi Coleman, was an associate professor of business administration. Her staff profile disappeared a few weeks after several recent retractions came to light. A Pitt spokesperson confirmed that Coleman was … Continue reading Consumer researcher leaves Pitt after retractions for data anomalies

Getting medieval: Society says it is retracting 14 book reviews for plagiarism

More than a dozen book reviews by a history PhD student are under scrutiny for plagiarism concerns.  The reviews are published in the Al-Masāq Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean, a Society for the Medieval Mediterranean journal published by Taylor & Francis. The majority of the papers appear to be stolen whole works from other authors … Continue reading Getting medieval: Society says it is retracting 14 book reviews for plagiarism

Study rating attractiveness of women with endometriosis is not yet retracted

Despite media reports announcing the retraction of a much-criticized study of whether women with endometriosis were more attractive than other women, the study has yet to be retracted by the journal. Last week, several news outlets, picking up on a story in The Guardian, said the study, first published in 2013 in Fertility and Sterility, … Continue reading Study rating attractiveness of women with endometriosis is not yet retracted