research-integrity
14 stories tagged "research-integrity"
Three Sydney Space-Physics Papers Outlasted a 2023 Fabrication Finding Against Their First Author
A 2023 Sydney inquiry found Joachim Schmidt fabricated a figure in an unpublished manuscript. Journals now say figures in three of his published papers were likely fabricated too, and those retractions began with an anonymous complaint to the publisher in 2024.
InvestigationsA Melbourne Gender Study Scored 234 Children on Their Transition Goals and Left Wellbeing Out
Researchers at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital sorted 234 children aged 8 to 17 by how many of their name, pronoun and appearance goals they had reached. Their cohort tracks mental health, and the paper did not analyze it as an outcome.
InvestigationsThe Byline Broker Signed Its Sales Pitch With a London Oncologist's Name
Springer Journals Online sold co-author slots on papers it said were nearly through review at Elsevier, Wiley and Springer Nature, and signed the pitch with a cancer researcher's name. Its website is gone. The manuscripts have not been publicly identified.
InvestigationsYour Country's Estimated Heat Death Toll Depends on Which Heat Metric the Modelers Picked
Japan recorded 1,522 heatstroke deaths in 2020. One model called that unusually high; a better-fitting one put it inside the expected range. Europe's estimated heat tolls bend to the same kind of choice.
InvestigationsPhysics of Fluids Sent a Postdoc's Name to the Authors Whose Algebra He Flagged
AIP Publishing tells its editors to protect the anonymity of anyone raising a concern. Physics of Fluids sent a postdoc's name, institution and rank to the authors he challenged, and 8 referees later found nothing to defend in their paper.
InvestigationsThe Fraud Hunter Says She Can No Longer Tell Fake Science From Real
Journals retracted more than 10,000 papers in a single year. In one test, 2 of 3 biomedical experts could not tell AI-fabricated images from real ones, and Elisabeth Bik, the field's most relentless fraud hunter, says peer review is not prepared.
InvestigationsThe WHO Halted a Global Drug Trial on Data a Tiny Company Would Not Let Auditors See
Ninety-six thousand patients across six continents, supplied by a Chicago firm that would not open its database to independent auditors, and the WHO changed course in days.
InvestigationsThe Zombie Papers: Retracted Stem-Cell Studies Still Feeding the Unproven-Cure Marketplace
A stem-cell paper retracted in November 2021 kept collecting citations for years, 72 by mid-2026, 27 of them after the notice went up, 15 since 2023 that never mention it. Two researchers counted, and named who is supposed to be cleaning up.
InvestigationsA Journal Built to Critique Capitalism Sold for €360,000. Its Fifteen Editors Read the New Fees and Quit.
A €360,000 sale, a €1,350 charge to publish, and a 25 percent fee to withdraw your own paper: the board of a journal built to critique capitalism read the new terms and resigned en masse.
Investigations'No Falsification': JAMA Keeps a Purdue-Funded Opioid Paper Its Own Retraction Rule Says to Pull
Court records from a 2007 federal case show Purdue had flagged 8 possible-withdrawal cases a year before its 2000 study called withdrawal rare. The journal says that isn't falsification, so the paper stays in print.
InvestigationsA Gene-Editing Trial Killed a Six-Year-Old. The Only Official Penalty Was a $3,500 Fine.
Xinhua Hospital paid about 24,000 yuan in September 2025. The death it was fined over stayed out of the medical literature for another ten months, and out of the Nature paper entirely.
InvestigationsA Gene-Editing Trial Killed a 6-Year-Old. Nature Published the Science and Left Her Out of the Record.
Her parents paid $860,000 to base-edit their daughter's brain. She died of an immune reaction within a week, the trial's fatal outcome was never disclosed, and the Nature paper built on the same work never names her.
Brain & AgingThe Brain Was Starving Before the Plaques Showed Up: Alzheimer's Metabolic Reframe Has a Case, Not a Trial
A rising camp says failing mitochondria, not amyloid plaques, may drive Alzheimer's first. The biology is compelling and the amyloid monoculture earned its reckoning, but the metabolic side has its own retractions and not one human trial showing it works.
InvestigationsVietnam's New Integrity Rule Arrives 251 Retractions Late
Vietnam's Ministry of Science and Technology issued a research-integrity framework with permanent bans on May 25, 2026. The Retraction Watch database already lists 251 retractions carrying Vietnamese affiliations.