Karolinska requests retraction of 2014 Macchiarini paper

It has been a tough couple of years for surgeon Paolo Macchiarini, once lauded for pioneering a groundbreaking procedure to transplant tracheas. After a series of documentaries prompted his former employer, Karolinska Institutet (KI), to reopen a misconduct investigation against him, KI has today released one verdict regarding a 2014 Nature Communications paper: guilty. KI said […]

The post Karolinska requests retraction of 2014 Macchiarini paper appeared first on Retraction Watch.

Is China using organs from executed prisoners? Researchers debate issue in the literature

A researcher is calling for the retraction of a paper about a recent ban in the use of organs from executed prisoners in China, accusing the authors of misrepresenting the state of the practice. In April 2015, a paper in the Journal of Medical Ethics welcomed the ban by the Chinese government as “a step in the right […]

The post Is China using organs from executed prisoners? Researchers debate issue in the literature appeared first on Retraction Watch.

Author retracts statements about gay conversion therapy

Key assertions in a paper on homosexuality have been removed from the Journal of the Islamic Medical Association of North America, in what the notice describes as a “partial retraction.” The 2006 article “Homosexuality: An Islamic Perspective,” states that conversion therapy can be effective, and that gay people have poorer health. Those statements are among those that lack evidence, according to […]

The post Author retracts statements about gay conversion therapy appeared first on Retraction Watch.

Entrepreneur ranking retracted for not being “inclusive enough”

This is a first for us — a publication that covers start-ups in South Africa has retracted a list of 13 rising tech entrepreneurs for not being “inclusive enough.” Lists are a staple of popular media, so much so that they’ve earned their own word: listicle. But we’ve never seen one get retracted before. We weren’t […]

The post Entrepreneur ranking retracted for not being “inclusive enough” appeared first on Retraction Watch.

Anti-fish oil researcher netted two more retractions

Earlier this year, Food and Nutrition Sciences retracted two papers from an author who criticized highly popular fish oil supplements after an additional round of peer review concluded his papers present a “biased interpretation,” among other issues. Last year, Brian Peskin lost a paper for an “undeclared competing interest” — namely, that he held patents and directed a […]

The post Anti-fish oil researcher netted two more retractions appeared first on Retraction Watch.

The camel doesn’t have two humps: Programming “aptitude test” canned for overzealous conclusion

From Larry Summers to James Watson, certain scientists have a long and questionable tradition of using “data” to make claims about intelligence and aptitude. So it’s no surprise that, when well-known computer scientist Richard Bornat claimed his PhD student had created a test to separate people who would succeed at programming versus those who didn’t, people happily […]