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'Our @[673396830:2048:Ivan Oransky] on clinical trial transparency. From @[111014922285371:274:Transparency International]. https://ti-health.org/research-and-development/'
'Our @[100002676776064:2048:Dalmeet Singh] and @[673396830:2048:Ivan Oransky] meet for the first time in London.'
'Scientific publishing 60 years ago. Has anything changed? http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jnc.13550/full#pq=u9itgh'
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We're learning more about a troubled University of Illinois at Chicago study of children.

Three psychiatric studies of children contained a myriad of problems that may have put participants at greater risk than was disclosed by consent forms, according to a 2014 letter sent to hundreds of the participants and their families. Through a public records request, we’ve obtained a copy of the…
retractionwatch.com

"Overall, it seems likely that a robust capacity for extended online discussion of published research will eventually advance scientific progress, and may hasten discovery of problems with some papers, while creating unfortunate opportunities for anonymous and misdirected harassment in some cases."

linkinghub.elsevier.com
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The story begins in August, when a professor emeritus of molecular medicine at the University of Sydney published a critique of a paper that itself had critiqued the practice of circumcision.

Circumcision is a hot topic. So hot, questions about a reviewer’s potential conflict with the author of an article promoting circumcision prompted a journal editor to resign, and one academic to call another a “fanatic.” It began in August, when Brian Morris, professor emeritus of molecular medicine...
retractionwatch.com

In March, 2013, a graduate student joined the lab of a prominent researcher in Australia. A few months later, everything fell apart.

In March, 2013, a graduate student joined the lab of a prominent researcher in Australia, investigating new therapies for Parkinson’s. A few months later, everything fell apart. In September 2013, the University of Queensland (UQ) announced it was retracting one of the lab’s papers, returning the mo...
retractionwatch.com

Another "oops."

Elation, then disappointment. That was the emotional sequence for some significant number of researchers around the world on Friday. In the space of several hours, they received word that they were among the scientific 1% — the most cited researchers on the planet — then learned that…well, they actu...
retractionwatch.com

An investigation included the last author, a prominent researcher who is also a vice president at another institution in Taiwan.

Last week, we learned a 2016 paper heavily discussed on PubPeer might be retracted — today, we learned that Nature Cell Biology has indeed pulled the paper, citing inappropriate image modifications. As we reported last week, a comment on PubPeer flagged as coming from an author said they had request...
retractionwatch.com

Oops.

Journals published by Springer have retracted three articles in different disciplines, noting in all instances the articles were published by mistake. A Springer spokesperson told us all three papers were pulled as a result of “human error.” In two instances, the notices say the editors-in-chief nev...
retractionwatch.com

If journals were to compensate those reviewers at a reasonable rate of $75 per hour, that’s on the order of $4.5 billion of labor.

What do Godzilla and scientific peer review have in common? Each ought to be collapsing under its own weight, yet somehow they stand.
statnews.com

Lots of good stuff here.

The week at Retraction Watch featured news of a publisher hack, and a story about a Nature Cell Biology paper likely headed for retraction. Here’s what was happening elsewhere: Our peer review system is like Godzilla: It shouldn’t be able to stand under its own weight, yet somehow it does. The lates...
retractionwatch.com

Someone illegally accessed a publisher workflow to add fake authors and manipulate text.

A publisher in the Netherlands has retracted 13 published studies and withdrawn 52 that were under consideration (but not yet published) after learning that someone illegally accessed its workflows to add fake authors and manipulate text. According to Seyyed Mohammad Miri, the founder, CEO, and mana...
retractionwatch.com

"On the other hand, weekend days (Saturday and Sunday) are not the best days to finalize and submit manuscripts."

This paper aims at providing an introduction to the behavior of authors submitting a paper to a scientific journal. Dates of electronic submission of papers to the Journal of the Serbian Chemical Society have been recorded from the 1st January 2013 till the 31st December 2014, thus over 2 years. The...
sciencedirect.com

A letter alleges the lab that produced the initial results turned other scientists away when they tried to replicate its findings in mammalian cells.

A new letter signed by 20 researchers is casting additional doubts on the validity of a potentially invaluable lab tool — and alleges the lab that produced the initial results turned them away when they tried to replicate its findings in mammalian cells. In a letter published this week in Protein &…
retractionwatch.com

"Several poor and/or irresponsible research practices appear entrenched in Dr. Sarkar’s laboratory...'

We knew that Wayne State University had investigated allegations of misconduct against Fazlul Sarkar, the scientist who is suing PubPeer commenters over criticisms of his work. We knew The Scientist had obtained a copy of the report, which concluded he had engaged in widespread misconduct, and he sh...
retractionwatch.com

Lack of ethical approval sinks study.

The authors of a 2014 study about asthma in Norwegian athletes have retracted it after realizing they hadn’t obtained proper approval from an ethical committee. The study’s first and corresponding author of the study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine — Julie Stang from the Norwegian School o...
retractionwatch.com

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the companies that sell those meters objected to how the studies were conducted.

Two papers evaluating glucose meters — used by diabetics to monitor blood sugar levels — suggested that a couple of the devices don’t work as well as they should. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the companies that sell those meters objected to how the studies were conducted. By all accounts, the companies a...
retractionwatch.com

A comment on PubPeer says the paper contains several figures that were "inappropriately manipulated" by the first author.

A Nature Cell Biology paper published only a few months ago by prominent researchers in Taiwan has sparked a heated discussion on PubPeer, which now includes a comment allegedly from an author saying they have requested its retraction. Although a representative of the journal wouldn’t confirm to us…
retractionwatch.com

"Beyond the time it takes to actually get the science done, peer review has become the slowest step in the process of sharing studies."

The traditional mode of publishing scientific research faces much criticism – primarily for being too slow and sometimes shoddily done. Maybe fewer publications of higher quality is the way forward.
theconversation.com|By Tricia Serio
Tracking retractions as a window into the scientific process
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