Retraction Watch
@retractionwatch.com
A project of The Center For Scientific Integrity https://centerforscientificintegrity.org/
Daily newsletter http://eepurl.com/bNRlUn
Database http://retractiondatabase.org
Tips [email protected] (better than @ replies)
Daily newsletter http://eepurl.com/bNRlUn
Database http://retractiondatabase.org
Tips [email protected] (better than @ replies)
The authors of a highly publicized study predicting climate change would cost $38 trillion a year by 2049 have retracted their paper following criticism of the data and methodology, including that the estimate is inflated.
Authors retract Nature paper projecting high costs of climate change
The authors of a highly publicized study predicting climate change would cost $38 trillion a year by 2049 have retracted their paper following criticism of the data and methodology, including that …
retractionwatch.com
December 3, 2025 at 10:28 AM
The authors of a highly publicized study predicting climate change would cost $38 trillion a year by 2049 have retracted their paper following criticism of the data and methodology, including that the estimate is inflated.
“I started reading this article and found some interesting references that I decided to read as well,” Moore told Retraction Watch. “To my surprise, those articles didn’t exist.”
The case of the fake references in an ethics journal
Many would-be whistleblowers write to us about papers with nonexistent references, possibly hallucinated by artificial intelligence. One reader recently alerted us to fake references in … an ethics…
retractionwatch.com
December 2, 2025 at 8:20 PM
“I started reading this article and found some interesting references that I decided to read as well,” Moore told Retraction Watch. “To my surprise, those articles didn’t exist.”
The influential citation database Scopus has delisted three journals from Iraq in a blow to recent government efforts to boost the standing of the country’s scholarly publications.
Iraqi journal suspected of coercion, two others dropped from major citation databases
The influential citation database Scopus has delisted three journals from Iraq in a blow to recent government efforts to boost the standing of the country’s scholarly publications. One of the title…
retractionwatch.com
December 1, 2025 at 1:45 PM
The influential citation database Scopus has delisted three journals from Iraq in a blow to recent government efforts to boost the standing of the country’s scholarly publications.
Weekend reads: How an MIT student’s AI study ‘Fell Apart’; Egyptian scientists, Russian affiliations; the ‘dangers’ of bibliometrics with ‘polluted data’
Weekend reads: How an MIT student’s AI study ‘Fell Apart’; Egyptian scientists, Russian affiliations; the ‘dangers’ of bibliometrics with ‘polluted data’
Exclusive: ‘Highly problematic’ policy has Saudi university pressuring faculty to cite its research Meet the researcher aiming to halt use of ‘fundamentally flawed’ database linking IQ and national…
retractionwatch.com
November 29, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Weekend reads: How an MIT student’s AI study ‘Fell Apart’; Egyptian scientists, Russian affiliations; the ‘dangers’ of bibliometrics with ‘polluted data’
Springer Nature tells @jacksonwryan.com that Scientific Reports paper about autism with the nonsensical figure will be retracted.
nobreakthroughs.substack.com
November 28, 2025 at 7:14 AM
Springer Nature tells @jacksonwryan.com that Scientific Reports paper about autism with the nonsensical figure will be retracted.
A team of researchers in Belgium got more than they expected when they tried to study potato pathogens: an unwelcome contaminant, a retraction, and a new paper the authors say is “an improvement over the first.”
After realizing a fungus contaminated their experiments, researchers retract and redo study
Late blight in potatoes Source (CC BY 4.0) A team of researchers in Belgium got more than they expected when they tried to study potato pathogens: an unwelcome contaminant, a retraction, and a new …
retractionwatch.com
November 26, 2025 at 7:15 PM
A team of researchers in Belgium got more than they expected when they tried to study potato pathogens: an unwelcome contaminant, a retraction, and a new paper the authors say is “an improvement over the first.”
Rebecca Sear is on a mission to convince publishers to retract articles that use a database that purports to rank countries based on intelligence.
Meet the researcher aiming to halt use of ‘fundamentally flawed’ database linking IQ and nationality
Rebecca Sear Rebecca Sear is on a mission to convince publishers to retract articles that use a database that purports to rank countries based on intelligence. To maintain the integrity of scientif…
retractionwatch.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Rebecca Sear is on a mission to convince publishers to retract articles that use a database that purports to rank countries based on intelligence.
Despite this, Diana Hicks told us, “it certainly feels like mandating metrics gaming and so would encourage a culture not focused on integrity.”
Exclusive: ‘Highly problematic’ policy has Saudi university pressuring faculty to cite its research
Prince Sultan University At Prince Sultan University in Saudi Arabia, faculty members must help raise their school’s academic standing not by doing impactful work, but by citing the institution’s r…
retractionwatch.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Despite this, Diana Hicks told us, “it certainly feels like mandating metrics gaming and so would encourage a culture not focused on integrity.”
Weekend reads: Our cofounder credited in fake citation; ‘Substantial’ undisclosed COIs in psychiatry research; an AI threat to online surveys
Weekend reads: Our cofounder credited in fake citation; ‘Substantial’ undisclosed COIs in psychiatry research; an AI threat to online surveys
Computing society pulls works for ‘citation falsification’ months after sleuth is convicted of defamation Research integrity conference hit with AI-generated abstracts AI unreliable in identifying …
retractionwatch.com
November 22, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Weekend reads: Our cofounder credited in fake citation; ‘Substantial’ undisclosed COIs in psychiatry research; an AI threat to online surveys
Exclusive: Reviewer recommended against publishing paper on DNA in COVID vaccines
Exclusive: Reviewer recommended against publishing paper on DNA in COVID vaccines
Rolf Marschalek was on vacation when he saw a new paper had been published in the journal Autoimmunity. Marschalek, a biochemist at Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany, was “very upset,” he told…
retractionwatch.com
November 21, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Exclusive: Reviewer recommended against publishing paper on DNA in COVID vaccines
A Science journal has issued an expression of concern over questions about the data in a paper reporting the discovery of an antibody that neutralized all COVID-19 variants in mice.
COVID-19 paper by scientists at Harvard, Duke gets expression of concern for ‘unreliable’ data
A Science journal has issued an expression of concern over questions about the data in a paper reporting the discovery of an antibody that neutralized all COVID-19 variants in mice. The article app…
retractionwatch.com
November 21, 2025 at 7:17 PM
A Science journal has issued an expression of concern over questions about the data in a paper reporting the discovery of an antibody that neutralized all COVID-19 variants in mice.
Springer Nature flags paper with fabricated reference to article (not) written by our cofounder
Springer Nature flags paper with fabricated reference to article (not) written by our cofounder
Tips we get about papers and books citing fake references have skyrocketed this year, tracking closely with the rise of ChatGPT and other generative large language models. One in particular hit clo…
retractionwatch.com
November 21, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Springer Nature flags paper with fabricated reference to article (not) written by our cofounder
A paper on a clinical trial of metformin for the treatment of COVID-19 has been retracted nearly two years after the authors flagged data issues that resulted in an expression of concern. It joins our list of more than 600 retracted COVID-19 papers.
Lancet journal retracts COVID-19 metformin paper nearly 2 years after authors request correction
A paper on a clinical trial of metformin for the treatment of COVID-19 has been retracted nearly two years after the authors flagged data issues that resulted in an expression of concern. The…
retractionwatch.com
November 20, 2025 at 5:34 PM
A paper on a clinical trial of metformin for the treatment of COVID-19 has been retracted nearly two years after the authors flagged data issues that resulted in an expression of concern. It joins our list of more than 600 retracted COVID-19 papers.
Not only were the chatbots unreliable at correctly identifying retracted papers, they spit out different results when given the same prompts.
AI unreliable in identifying retracted research papers, says study
LLMs don’t reliably identify retracted papers, a new study finds. (Image: DALL-E) Large language models should not be used to weed out retracted literature, a study of 21 chatbots concludes. …
retractionwatch.com
November 19, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Not only were the chatbots unreliable at correctly identifying retracted papers, they spit out different results when given the same prompts.
In an ironic and possibly predictable turn of events, the conference has received “an unusually large proportion” of off-topic abstracts that show signs of being written by generative AI.
Research integrity conference hit with AI-generated abstracts
The first of three themes for next year’s World Conference on Research Integrity will be the risks and benefits of artificial intelligence for research integrity. In an ironic and possibly predicta…
retractionwatch.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:06 PM
In an ironic and possibly predictable turn of events, the conference has received “an unusually large proportion” of off-topic abstracts that show signs of being written by generative AI.
An international computing society has begun retracting conference papers for “citation falsification” only months after the sleuth who flagged the suspect articles was convicted for defamation in a lawsuit filed by one of the offending authors.
Computing society pulls works for ‘citation falsification’ months after sleuth is convicted of defamation
Solal Pirelli An international computing society has begun retracting conference papers for “citation falsification” only months after the sleuth who flagged the suspect articles was convicted for …
retractionwatch.com
November 17, 2025 at 7:32 PM
An international computing society has begun retracting conference papers for “citation falsification” only months after the sleuth who flagged the suspect articles was convicted for defamation in a lawsuit filed by one of the offending authors.
A paper critiquing post-publication peer review has numerous made-up references, including a @nature.com article falsely attributed to our Ivan Oransky.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
PubPeer - An expert criticism on post-publication peer review platform...
There are comments on PubPeer for publication: An expert criticism on post-publication peer review platforms: the case of pubpeer (2025)
pubpeer.com
November 16, 2025 at 9:11 AM
A paper critiquing post-publication peer review has numerous made-up references, including a @nature.com article falsely attributed to our Ivan Oransky.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Weekend reads: Debunking ‘When Prophecy Fails’; ‘Godfather of AI’ first to reach 1 million citations; ‘Cake causes herpes?’
Weekend reads: Debunking ‘When Prophecy Fails’; ‘Godfather of AI’ first to reach 1 million citations; ‘Cake causes herpes?’
Author changes name, publishes 10 papers in journals that banned him Bug in Springer Nature metadata may be causing ‘significant, systemic’ citation inflation Math is back as Clarivate boosts integ…
retractionwatch.com
November 16, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Weekend reads: Debunking ‘When Prophecy Fails’; ‘Godfather of AI’ first to reach 1 million citations; ‘Cake causes herpes?’
How did a trio of botanists end up writing a case report about oral cancer?
Botanists plant a stake in oral cancer research with case report, now under investigation
Elsevier is investigating a case report of a person with aggressive cancer, written by three plant researchers working far afield of their specialty. The three authors of the study, published…
retractionwatch.com
November 14, 2025 at 7:11 PM
How did a trio of botanists end up writing a case report about oral cancer?
The @ama-assn.org will cease publication of its ethics journal at the end of this year.
AMA ethics journal shutters after 26 years
The American Medical Association will cease publication of its ethics journal at the end of this year. The AMA Journal of Ethics, an open access, peer-reviewed journal was founded in 1999 und…
retractionwatch.com
November 14, 2025 at 12:07 AM
The @ama-assn.org will cease publication of its ethics journal at the end of this year.
@bmj.com has issued an expression of concern for a paper claiming stem cell therapy can reduce the risk of heart failure. The move comes after sleuths and scientists critiqued the “complete mismatch” between the study data and the article itself.
BMJ places expression of concern on heavily criticized stem cell paper
The BMJ has issued an expression of concern for a paper claiming stem cell therapy can reduce the risk of heart failure. The move comes after sleuths and scientists critiqued the “complete mismatch…
retractionwatch.com
November 12, 2025 at 9:33 PM
@bmj.com has issued an expression of concern for a paper claiming stem cell therapy can reduce the risk of heart failure. The move comes after sleuths and scientists critiqued the “complete mismatch” between the study data and the article itself.
Bug in Springer Nature metadata may be causing ‘significant, systemic’ citation inflation
Bug in Springer Nature metadata may be causing ‘significant, systemic’ citation inflation
Millions of researchers could be affected by a “dramatic distortion of citation counts” likely caused by flaws in how the academic publishing giant Springer Nature handles article metadata, accordi…
retractionwatch.com
November 11, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Bug in Springer Nature metadata may be causing ‘significant, systemic’ citation inflation
How to render a publishing ban moot? Change your surname and just keep submitting.
Author changes name, publishes 10 papers in journals that banned him
How to render a publishing ban moot? Change your surname and just keep submitting. That’s what happened in the case of Hashem Babaei, aka Hashem Gharababaei. In 2010, the Institution of Mechanical …
retractionwatch.com
November 10, 2025 at 6:39 PM
How to render a publishing ban moot? Change your surname and just keep submitting.
Weekend reads: Journal retracts ADHD intervention papers; ‘Science and the crisis of trust’; letters to editors surge
Weekend reads: Journal retracts ADHD intervention papers; ‘Science and the crisis of trust’; letters to editors surge
Former Australian science agency ecology researcher loses two papers Dozens of board members resign from big-data journal after mass staff firings Review mill in Italy targeting ob-gyn journals, re…
retractionwatch.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Weekend reads: Journal retracts ADHD intervention papers; ‘Science and the crisis of trust’; letters to editors surge
An Elsevier journal has retracted a study on the placebo effect coauthored by a researcher known for extreme claims that have failed to withstand scrutiny. The move comes after critics said the researchers misunderstood “what a ‘treatment effect’ is.”
Journal retracts ‘bizarre’ placebo effect paper
An Elsevier journal has retracted a study on the placebo effect coauthored by a researcher known for extreme claims that have failed to withstand scrutiny. The move comes after critics said the res…
retractionwatch.com
November 7, 2025 at 6:52 PM
An Elsevier journal has retracted a study on the placebo effect coauthored by a researcher known for extreme claims that have failed to withstand scrutiny. The move comes after critics said the researchers misunderstood “what a ‘treatment effect’ is.”