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EXPLAINED: Retraction watch - The Real Truth

Scientists behind controversial 2010 arsenic-based life study clap back as paper gets pulled: 'We do not support this retraction'

A retraction intends to bring to an end the acrimonious debate about the validity of the 15-year old findings that threatened to upend what we thought we know about life.

Space

Scientific misconduct is on the rise. But what exactly is it?

German anaesthesiologist Joachim Boldt has an unfortunate claim to fame. According to Retraction Watch, a public database of research retractions, he is the most retracted scientist of all time. To date, 220 of his roughly 400 published research papers have been retracted by academic journals.

The Conversation

Bogus scientific papers are enriching fraudsters and slowing lifesaving medical research

Over the past decade, furtive commercial entities around the world have industrialized the production, sale and dissemination of bogus scholarly research. These paper mills are profiting by undermining the literature that everyone from doctors to engineers rely on to make decisions about human lives.

The Conversation

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A Rock-Star Researcher Spun a Web of Lies—and Nearly Got Away with It

Jonathan Pruitt was prolific, influential, and charming. Then academic sleuths started poking around

The Walrus

Paper mills: the ‘cartel-like’ companies behind fraudulent scientific journals

Science and Nature, two leading science journals, have revealed a growing problem: an alarming rise in fraudulent research papers produced by shady paper mill companies. This wave of fake studies is creating a major headache for the academic world, putting the integrity of global academic research at risk.

The Conversation

Flood Of 'Junk': How AI Is Changing Scientific Publishing

An infographic of a rat with a preposterously large penis. Earlier this year, a clearly AI-generated graphic of a rat with impossibly huge genitals was shared widely on social media.

International Business Times

How rightwing groups used junk science to get an abortion case before the US supreme court

Anti-abortion researchers ‘exaggerate’ and ‘obfuscate’ in their scientific papers – but by the time they’re published, it’s too late

The Guardian - US

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California Public Records Requester Can File Anti-SLAPP Motion Objecting to Attempt to Block Request

The motion allows early dismissal of a lawsuit, here the lawsuit that aimed to block UC Irvine from responding to a public records request from the Center for Scientific Integrity (the Retraction Watch people).

Reason

There’s far more scientific fraud than anyone wants to admit

Despite recent scandals of research misconduct and error, the academic world still seems determined to look the other way

The Guardian - US

Prestigious medical journal retracts nine more articles authored by concussion expert Paul McCrory

British Journal of Sports Medicine says investigation ‘revealed a pattern of publication misconduct’ by McCrory, has concerns over 38 other articles

The Guardian - AU

Retracted papers are used in clinical guidelines – how worried should we be?

In 1998, a now debunked study claimed that there was a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. The fiasco that surrounded this study eroded trust in science and was blamed for a drop in vaccination rates and a sharp increase in cases of measles.

People

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