Caught Our Notice: To know if someone’s been vaccinated, just asking isn’t enough

Title: Hepatitis B Virus Infection in Preconception Period Among Women of Reproductive Age in Rural China – A Nationwide Study What Caught Our Attention: When researchers set out to study hepatitis B among women in rural China, and they wanted to know if the women had been vaccinated against the virus, they simply asked them. While […]

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HIV paper pulled for lack of consent, errors

A researcher failed to obtain proper consent from HIV patients included in his study about risky sexual behavior, according to the journal that retracted his paper. The study, based on interviews with 154 men and women living with HIV, concluded that experiencing negative life events correlated with risky sexual behavior. But although the author claimed to have complied with […]

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Premature adaptation leads to withdrawal of sexual function paper

Ahem. The Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy has retracted a 2012 paper by a pair of authors in Spain who failed to obtain approval to adapt the model of sexual function they used in their study. The article indicates that the work was based on previous research. But that declaration wasn’t enough to satisfy the […]

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Biologist critiques own paper, journal retracts it — against her wishes

The journal Evolution has retracted a 2007 paper about the roles of the different sexes in searching for mates, after the same author critiqued the work in a later paper.  The case raises important questions about when retractions are appropriate, and whether they can have a chilling effect on scientific discourse. Although Hanna Kokko of the University […]

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Upon request, NEJM added note to help Texas distance itself from Planned Parenthood article

The New England Journal of Medicine added a disclaimer to a recent article about the effects of funding cuts to Planned Parenthood, after a request from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, saying it wanted to distance itself from the paper. Since the paper was published in February, one author has stepped down from his position at […]

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Ethics committee asks journal to retract paper about controversial growth-stunting treatment

A journal has retracted a paper on a controversial course of treatment used to stunt the growth of disabled children, at the request of the human research ethics committee at the University of Waikato in New Zealand. The paper described the so-called Ashley Treatment — explored last week in the New York Times — in which disabled […]

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Methodology of paper linking vaccine to behavioral issues “seriously flawed,” says retraction

After temporarily removing a paper that suggested a link between the vaccine for the human papillomavirus (HPV) and behavioral issues, the journal has now retracted it. Vaccine says the reason is “serious concerns regarding the scientific soundness of the article,” including flawed methodology and unjustified claims. Christopher A. Shaw, a co-author on the paper and a researcher at the […]

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Journal temporarily removes paper linking HPV vaccine to behavioral issues

The editor in chief of Vaccine has removed a paper suggesting a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine can trigger behavioral changes in mice. The note doesn’t provide any reason for the withdrawal, although authors were told the editor asked for further review. Two co-authors on the paper — about Gardasil, a vaccine against HPV — have previously suggested […]

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Wikipedia page reincarnated as paper: Authors plagiarized paper on reincarnation

When an entry on Wikipedia dies, can it come back as a paper in a peer-reviewed journal? Apparently not, according to the Indian Journal of Psychiatry, which has retracted a 2013 article about reincarnation after discovering the authors lifted text from a “old revision” of a Wikipedia entry on the subject. The article, “The mystery of […]

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You’ve been dupe’d: Data so nice, you see them twice

Last Friday we resurrected a previous feature of Retraction Watch, compiling five retractions that appeared to be simple acts of duplication. This week, we spotlight another five unrelated retractions which, as we said last week, cover duplications in which the same – or some of the same – authors published the same – or some of the same – […]

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