Whistleblowers win a victory; a look at COVID-19 retractions; journals as sewage treatment plants – Retraction Watch

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance.

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to 265. There are more than 36,000 retractions in our database — which powers retraction alerts in EndNote, LibKey, Papers, and Zotero. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most retractions lately — or our list of top 10 most highly cited retracted papers?

Here’s what was happening elsewhere (some of these items may be paywalled, metered access, or require free registration to read):

  • “ExxonMobil ordered to reinstate fired whistleblowers who alleged fraud.”
  • “Characteristics of Retracted Research Articles About COVID-19 vs Other Topics.”
  • “This video got me thinking about a different metaphor: journals as the sewage works standing between pipes full of untreated research and the pristine beaches of public discourse.”
  • “Our model estimated that submissions between midday and 1 PM had the lowest odds of rejection, although the most common submission time was after 3 PM.”
  • “Australia does not want to share health data.”
  • “So far, 879 studies have been completely withdrawn, 116 disclaimers have been issued and 952 corrections have been made through [Elisabeth Bik’s] her intervention.”
  • “Despite agreeing to make raw data available, some authors fail to comply.”
  • “Forecasting the publication and citation outcomes of COVID-19 preprints.”
  • “While traditional funding mechanisms are certainly not perfect, scientific communities should think twice before adopting fast funding as a new standard for funding.”
  • “Urgency of knowledge generation during the covid-19 pandemic: a retrospective on integrity in health publications.”
  • “Shane Tuck inquest to be held in July after plagiarism investigation delays hearings.”
  • “What’s Happening When Living Systematic Reviews…Stop?”
  • “Spin and reporting in systematic reviews with meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials in restorative dentistry.”
  • “Romania’s plagiarism hunter becomes the hunted.”
  • “Romanian president tries to save flagship education strategy after plagiarism scandal.”
  • “After scrambling fall courses by withdrawing more than 1,380 ebooks, Wiley now says it will restore access to the course materials.”
  • “Building Trust in Science Communication: The Role of Journals & Journalists, Pre-& Post-Publication.”
  • “Prevalence and Sources of Duplicate Information in the Electronic Medical Record.”
  • “Standing on the shoulders of giants: How star scientists influence their coauthors.”
  • “Retraction of masturbation study ‘troubling for free speech,’” an academic argues in a paper.
  • Reproducibility’s new rule of three.”
  • “Why We Need More Quality Control in Science Funding…”
  • Thanks to corruption and other issues, “Iran risks becoming a nation bereft of its best minds.”
  • “Don’t dodge retraction of fraudulent papers. The author in 2010.
  • ​​Papers by Carlo Croce earn an expression of concern and a retraction following recent revelations in the case.
  • “I avoided authorship discussions with collaborators—until I learned some hard lessons.”
  • “White House’s open-access research directive scrambles long-entrenched models, raising key questions.”
  • “The credibility of science is damaged when universities brag about themselves.” On the attention economy.
  • “Is it ethical to be friends with research participants?”
  • “Science is paradoxically and simultaneously a source of both purity and tarnish.”
  • “‘SNL’ Accused of Ripping off Charmin Toilet Paper Bear Sketch.”

Like Retraction Watch? You can make a tax-deductible contribution to support our work, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, add us to your RSS reader, or subscribe to our daily digest. If you find a retraction that’s not in our database, you can let us know here. For comments or feedback, email us at team@retractionwatch.com.