(15 Mar 2022) With over 200 registrants and 100+ attendees, the February 25th CHORUS Forum resulted in a robust and frank discussion about research integrity. There were 2 sessions: Session 1: Research integrity issues through the submission and publication process The first session addressed research integrity issues through the submission and publication process for…
(8 Dec 2021) STM Solutions, the operational arm of STM (The International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers) today announced that it has started the development of a powerful new platform to detect integrity issues in manuscripts submitted for publication to scholarly journals. “This collaboration hub will provide a cloud-based environment for publishers…
(21 Sep 2021) Retraction Watch readers are likely familiar with the varied — and often unsatisfying — responses of journals to scientific sleuthing that uncovers potential problems with published images. Some editors take the issues seriously, even hiring staff to respond to allegations and vet manuscripts before publication. Some, however, take years to handle the allegations, or ignore them altogether.…
(25 Jul 2021) Although researchers often have valid reasons to take text they have already published and reuse it in new papers, peers often frown on such recycling as “self-plagiarism.” But when Cary Moskovitz of Duke University, who studies the teaching of writing, went looking for guidance on self-plagiarism for his students, he came up empty-handed.…
(7 Jul 2021) More than half of Dutch scientists regularly engage in questionable research practices, such as hiding flaws in their research design or selectively citing literature, according to a new study. And one in 12 admitted to committing a more serious form of research misconduct within the past 3 years: the fabrication or falsification of…
The nonsensical computer-generated articles, spotted years after the problem was first seen, could lead to a wave of retractions. (27 May 2021) Nonsensical research papers generated by a computer program are still popping up in the scientific literature many years after the problem was first seen, a study has revealed. Some publishers have told Nature they will…
(25 Mar 2021) A recent article by Holly Else & Richard Van Noorden in Nature looks at a growing issue in the field of research: Paper mills. The article highlights the work of Elizabeth Bik and other, pseudonymous, researchers that have identified more than 1,400 published papers that were potentially linked to paper mills. Of those,…
(10 Mar 2021) In Sweden, a national code takes 44,000 words to define research misconduct and discuss scientific values. Next door, Norway’s equivalent is a brisk 900 words, little more than in this news article. And it’s not just the size of the codes that differs across Europe: A new analysis of scientific integrity policies in…
(29 Jan 2021) Retraction of academic journal articles generally means major flaws are found in the research, which cannot be amended by simple correction. There might be many reasons why the articles are retracted. In this issue on Fun Facts on Numbers, let’s take a look at how many articles were retracted due to image-related…
A government-backed ethics board found duplicate images and other visual discrepancies in papers by three of the five researchers it investigated, but no evidence of plagiarism. (22 Jan 2021) Following a long investigation, five high-profile Chinese scientists have been cleared of allegations of plagiarism and academic fraud, a scientific integrity board under the central…