Tagged: retraction
What Deserves a Retraction?
The current crisis in scientific publication is much based on improper peer review of an increasing number of often mediocre manuscripts submitted to an ever-increasing number of new scientific journals. Facing university libraries’ limited budgets, the global players among publishers have been advocating “open access” publishing for more than a decade. Once a more than welcome initiative for making research results immediately accessible for everybody, it’s now a business model of Wiley, Elsevier and, in particular, Springer for making more money. All have also announced “manuscript transfer” of rejected, in their hardcore journals, manuscripts (“if not too bad”) to newly established open access journals. They even suggest to reuse previous reviews. I have reported about that before.
Three Papers Retracted by Dental Materials Journal
As an update to “Just Say ‘No!'”, Japanese open access Dental Materials Journal and its publisher J-STAGE have retracted three papers because authors did not pay publication charges. They are
Mahmoudi M, Saidi A, Gandjalikhan Nassab SA, Hashemipour MA. A three-dimensional finite element analysis of the effects of restorative materials and post geometry on stress distribution in mandibular molar tooth restored with post-core crown. Dent Mater J 2014; 33(1): 147.
Santander S, Alcaine C, Lyahyai J, Pérez MA, Rodellar C, Doblaré M, Ochoa I. In vitro osteoinduction of human mesenchymal stem cells in biomimetic surface modified titanium alloy implants. Dent Mater J 2014; 33(1): 148.
Boonanantanasarn K, Janebodin K, Suppakpatana P, Arayapisit T, Rodsutthi JA, Chunhabundit P, Boonanuntanasarn S, Sripairojthikoon W. Morinda citrifolia leaves enhance osteogenic differentiation and mineralization of human periodontal ligament cells. Dent Mater J 2014; 33(1): 149.
One may trust in (but should actually doubt) proper peer review of these papers from Iran, Spain, and Thailand.
Update on: On Arrogating Intellectual Property
Further Update 30 October 2014 below.
Some time ago, I have come across a case of plagiarism by former colleague, Alexandrina Dumitrescu, in her last of a series of five books which she had written during an extremely short period of just three years while having been employed by IKO at Tromsø University. Before the book was even published, a version on GoogleBooks was available and I proved, in a case study, that virtually all in a certain chapter on statistical modeling had been copied and pasted from original papers, many of them authored by me. That strangely included even extended paragraphs of results sections. The case study can be found here.
I had informed the publisher Springer about my findings in this case and had argued that it may just be the tip of the tip of an iceberg since the former colleague had produced with the same publisher all in all five books on various topics in Periodontology. I had asked the copy editor whether this particular book had been peer reviewed but never received a respective answer. (In fact, I had incidentally talked to a colleague who had actually reviewed one of the books and had strongly recommended a co-author.) What I did receive, a few weeks after I had informed and, apparently, alerted the publisher, was an email stating that Springer had decided that, due to copyright violations, the book would be retracted.
Periodontology 