Blog

Opinion / Nature Editorial on Publishing Risky Research

7/5/2012 9.28am by Ginny Barbour

There has been much discussion recently on how journals handle risky or "dual use" research - ie research that has the potential to be used for harm. A Nature Editorial (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v485/n7396/full/485005a.html) now discusses where things stand with regard to a pair of papers submitted to Science and Nature of papers reporting mammalian transmissibility of avian flu as a result of artificial genetic manipulation.

Opinion / New declaration on Publication Ethics in China

1/5/2012 10.07am by Natalie Ridgeway

Recent articles in the Scientist and Nature discuss publication ethics in China and point to a recent declaration by editors of the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) to follow guidelines issued by CAST in 2009. This declaration is one part of increasing awareness of the importance of publication ethics and the need for journals within China to address the issue.

Opinion / New York Times reports on the sharp rise in retractions

19/4/2012 11.28am by Natalie Ridgeway

The NYT discusses how the sharp rise in retractions is prompting calls for reform.  Read the full article here.

Opinion / Anesthesia and Analgesia publish editorial re: Fujii Statement of Concern

21/3/2012 4.41pm by Natalie Ridgeway

Anesthesia & Analgesia have published an editorial which discusses the retraction of eight manuscripts by Dr. Yoshitaka Fujii published under the auspices of Toho University, as well as his dismissal from the university.  The editorial continues by discussing the journal's concern over papers published by Dr Fujii in Anesthesia & Analegesia - concerns which were fist highlighted to the Editors in a Letter to the Editor by Kranke, Apfel, and Roewer alleging research fraud by Dr. Fujii back in April 2000.

Opinion / New study published on retractions in biomedical papers

1/3/2012 5.09pm by Natalie Ridgeway

A new study on retractions shows that the system is effective for alerting the community to invalid work.  The Scholarly Kitchen discusses an article ("Governing knowledge in the scientific community: Exploring the role of retractions in biomedicine“ pub in Research Policy, March 2012 by, J Furman, K Jensen, and F Murray) that reports on a study of 677 article retractions identified in MEDLINE between 1972 and 2006.

Opinion / Video misconduct evidence from Japanese whistleblower

27/1/2012 9.22am by Liz Wager

According to Science, a whistleblower in Japan has posted a video on YouTube containing allegations of image manipulation.

Opinion / Brits are getting less honest

25/1/2012 4.40pm by Liz Wager

According to a survey from the Centre for the Study of Integrity, people in the UK are less honest than they were 10 years ago and younger people are more tolerant of dishonesty.

Opinion / Supervisor criticised for student who plagiarised

21/1/2012 1.31pm by Liz Wager

The US Office of Research Integrity has taken action against a researcher who committed plagiarism and his supervisor who failed to report the problem according to a report in Nature.

Opinion / Editor sacked after papers are retracted

16/1/2012 9.18am by Liz Wager

According to Retraction Watch, the co-editor-in-chief of Antioxidants & Redox Signaling has been dismissed from his position after being found guilty of data fabrication and falsification, and having several papers retracted.  This is also reported in the journal in an editorial .

Opinion / Prevalence of plagiarism and use of text-matching software

9/1/2012 10.16am by Liz Wager

A research group from Croatia has produced a useful paper on their experiences of using various kinds of text-matching software to detect plagiarism. They found 11% of papers submitted to the Croatian Medical Journal from 2009-10 included plagiarised material. Their paper is published in Science and Engineering Ethics.

Opinion / Plagiarism in a global context

6/1/2012 9.08am by Liz Wager

Cameron et al observe that most scientists publishing in English-language journals are not native English speakers and discuss the implications for training about plagiarism in an article in Academic Medicine

Opinion / Managing research misconduct

5/1/2012 9.03am by Liz Wager

The BMJ has published a review of different countries' approaches to handling research misconduct (available here).

Opinion / Journal sued for criticising editor

4/1/2012 4.57pm by Liz Wager

According to the BBC (see here), Nature is being sued for libel after making allegations that an editor published his own work in his journal and circumvented normal peer review processes.

Opinion / Plagiarism and fake authorship in engineering

20/11/2011 2.53pm by Liz Wager

Retraction Watch reports a case in which an engineering researcher was plagiarized but the journal editor could not determine who was responsible, or report the problem to the author's institution, because the plagiarist apparently used a false name (and/or false affiliation). 

Opinion / Psychology of fraud

10/11/2011 8.03am by Liz Wager

Social psychologist Jennifer Crocker has written a commentary on the Stapel case focusing on the 'first tiny step' that may lead to somebody commiting research fraud. It is published in this week's Nature.

Opinion / Misconduct in social psychology investigated

7/11/2011 10.27am by Liz Wager

Nature reports the outcome of university investigations into misconduct by a Dutch researcher. While the misconduct is serious and therefore troubling, this appears to be a good example of a thorough, prompt, and transparent investigation carried out by the institution. The full report (in Dutch) is available here. The news item in Nature is available here.

Opinion / Study shows prevalence of guest and ghost authors

25/10/2011 5.23pm by Liz Wager

 

A study published in the BMJ [see here] found that 21% of papers published in 2008 in 6 major medical journals had guest or ghost authors.  This is a slight decrease since a similar study in 1996 found 29% but still a cause for concern. Guest authorship appears to be a particular problem in research articles.

Opinion / COPE cases show problems at institutions

24/10/2011 10.56am by Liz Wager

COPE Chair, Liz Wager, has used COPE cases to show the problems editors sometimes face when they try to work with institutions on cases of suspected misconduct. The report has been published online in the BMJ this week. It is available to BMJ subscribers here and on the COPE website here.

Opinion / UK working group on research transparency

15/9/2011 5.53pm by Liz Wager

The UK Minister for Science has announced the formation of a working group on research transparency which will examine how UK-funded research findings can be made more accessible, with a particular focus on 'academic publications'. A press release is available here.

Opinion / Problems with data availability

15/9/2011 9.29am by Liz Wager

A study published in PLoS One by Alsheikh-Ali and colleagues highlights the diversity of data sharing policies in high impact journals and researchers' failure to adhere to policies when they do exist. Only 9% of the 500 papers included links to full online data sets and nearly 60% of the papers covered by a data availability policies failed to follow them properly.

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