Category Archives: research policy
How often do economists commit misconduct?
We haven’t covered that many retractions in economics, and a 2012 paper found very few such retractions. Now, a new study based on a survey of economists tries to get a handle on how often economists commit scientific misconduct. Here’s the abstract of “Scientific misbehavior in economics,” which appeared in Research Policy: This study reports […]
Posted by in economics, germany retractions, research policy, studies about retractions
Lichtenthaler co-author Ernst retracts paper that didn’t include Lichtenthaler
A frequent co-author of Ulrich Lichtenthaler — the management professor who has retracted at least eight papers — has now withdrawn one of his own from Research Policy.
The original paper, “How to create commercial value from patents: The role of patent management,” by Holger Ernst and colleagues, went online on May 21, 2012. Here’s the notice:
This article has been withdrawn at the request of the authors and editor. The Publisher apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause.
The full Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal can be found at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy.
Ernst’s name was removed from a paper he and Lichtenthaler co-authored in the Journal of Product Innovation Management.
Ernst didn’t respond to a request for comment, but Elsevier, which publishes Research Policy, sent us this explanation:
After the paper by Ernst et al. had been accepted for publication (but before it was formally published with a volume and page number), the attention of the Research Policy Editors was drawn to certain statistical problems. When asked about these, the authors stated that the statistical errors had been inadvertently made when a revised version of the paper was being prepared in response to referees’ comments on the original version. In line with Elsevier procedures for handling ‘articles in press’, it was therefore decided to withdraw the paper.
Hat tip: Thanks to a number of commenters and people on Twitter for bringing this withdrawal to our attention.
