Category Archives: frontiers
‘Misguided and ineffectual’: Publisher offers mea culpa in retraction of paper questioning link between HIV and AIDS
Anyone who lives near or has ever driven past a cattle ranch knows this much: No amount of perfume can mask the smell of bullshit. If you want proof, and you don’t have a car, just ask the editors of Frontiers in Public Health. In 2014, the journal published a paper by a researcher in … Continue reading ‘Misguided and ineffectual’: Publisher offers mea culpa in retraction of paper questioning link between HIV and AIDS
Publisher issues first retractions for fake peer review, starts new checking policy
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 […]
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Work by group at Australian university faces scrutiny
A journal is investigating research by a group in Australia, after receiving “serious allegations” regarding a 2017 paper about treating eye burns. The journal, Frontiers in Pharmacology, has issued an expression of concern (EOC) for the 2017 paper while it investigates. The notice does not specify the nature of the allegations. Meanwhile, several other papers […]
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How to spot a “citation cartel”
Do you know the difference between a group of researchers in the same field who cite each other’s related work, and a group of authors who purposefully cite each other in order to boost their own profiles? It’s not easy to do, say researchers in a new article about so-called “Citation cartels.” In Frontiers in […]
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Posted by in citation manipulation, frontiers, Frontiers in Physics, slovenia
“Crucial experiments” missing from retracted plant study
A 2016 study was retracted from a Frontiers journal after editors realized the authors had omitted experiments that didn’t support the hypothesis. Gearóid Ó Faoleán, ethics and integrity manager at Frontiers, which publishes Frontiers in Plant Science, told us: In accordance with our complaints protocol, the Field Chief Editor led the investigation that resulted in the decision […]
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Authors retract two statin papers, one with problems “too extensive to revise”
Researchers in China have retracted two 2016 papers about the possible use of a cholesterol-lowering agent to treat bleeding on the brain. One of the retracted papers in the Journal of Neurosurgery (JNS) had multiple problems that were “too extensive to revise,” according to the lengthy retraction notice, relating to issues with authorship, data analyses, […]
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Journal reverses acceptance of study linking vaccines to autism
A journal posted an abstract online suggesting a link between vaccines and autism. After a firestorm of criticism, it removed the abstract, saying it was going to be re-reviewed. Now, the journal has decided to formally reject it. As we reported last month, Frontiers in Public Health removed the abstract after it sparked criticism on […]
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Study linking vaccines to autism pulled following heavy criticism
A study linking vaccines to autism and other neurological problems has been removed by a Frontiers journal after receiving heavy criticism since it was accepted last week. The abstract — published online in Frontiers in Public Health after being accepted November 21 — reported findings from anonymous online questionnaires completed by 415 mothers of home-schooled children 6-12 years […]
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Genetics study flagged for reliability issues by Frontiers journal
A genetics journal has issued an expression of concern (EOC) for a study after an investigation by its chief editors. According to the notice in Frontiers in Genetics, the authors of the paper — based at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan — are conducting further experiments to resolve the issues raised by the journal’s investigation. […]
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Journal pulls plug on paper that predicts person’s death, against authors’ objections
Some people can look at an old photograph of a person — say, of your grandmother in elementary school — and tell whether the person is today alive or dead, according to a paper published last spring. If that sounds too weird to be true…well, it might be. The journal editors have retracted the paper for not having enough evidence to back […]
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