Repeating probability of authors with retracted scientific publications

Both the scientific community and the general public have expressed concern over scientific misconduct. The number of retracted articles has increased dramatically over the past 20 years and now comprises about .02% of the 2 million articles published each year. Retraction of publications available in large public databases can be analyzed as an objective measure for scientific misconduct and errors. In this project, we analyzed retractions of scientific publications using the Web of Science (WoS) and PubMed databases. We found that a power law is applicable to distributions of retracting authors and retracted publications with exponents of about ?.6 and ?3.0, respectively. Application of a power-law model for retracted publications implies that retraction is not a random event. Analysis of the retraction distributions suggests that a small fraction (1–2%) of retracting authors with ≧5 retractions are responsible for around 10% of retraction. The probabilities for their repeating retraction are calculated using a statistical model: 3–5% likelihood of repeat retraction for authors with a single retraction at five years after the latest retraction and 26–37% for authors with five retractions at five years after the latest retraction. By focusing on those with repeated retractions, this analysis could contribute to identification of measures to reduce such repetition of retractions.     

Inaction over retractions of identified fraudulent publications: ongoing weakness in the system of scientific self-correction

Published articles may be retracted when their findings are no longer considered reliable due to honest error, publication misconduct, or research misconduct. This article focuses on the case of a single serial violator of research and publication ethics in anesthesiology and critical care, which is widely publicized. A chain of events led to detection of misconduct that had substantial impact on the evidence base for the safety of hydroxyethyl starch, an intravenous artificial colloid solution, which is reflected in current guidelines on fluid management and volume resuscitation. As citations to retracted works continue to be a cause for concern, this article reviews the retraction status of this author’s published articles to determine whether sufficient action has been taken to retract his body of work. Results show that retraction practices are not uniform and that guidelines for retraction are still not being fully implemented, resulting in retractions of insufficient quantity and quality. As retractions continue to emerge for the author’s publications, with ten more since 2011, and as they are generally increasing, these data on retractions not only provide findings of misconduct, but also allow us to make inferences about ongoing weaknesses in the system of scientific literature.     

Publication rates after the first retraction for biomedical researchers with multiple retracted publications

Retraction of scientific publications can unmask scientific misconduct. We undertook a survey of publication rates, for authors with multiple retractions in the biomedical literature, to determine whether they changed after authors’ first retractions.

We collected publication and citation data from Scopus for 100 authors with multiple retractions (either >10 retractions or 2–5 retractions) in the Retraction Watch database.

Publication rates increased until the year of the first retraction and decreased rapidly thereafter. By 4 years after the first retraction, the proportion of authors actively publishing at least one paper/year was <50%, annual publication rates were <50% of the pre-retraction rate, and only 22% of authors had a publication rate >50% of their pre-retraction rate. There was no difference in the decline in publication rates between authors associated with a retraction for misconduct and those not associated with such a retraction. After the first retraction, citation rates of retracted papers declined whereas those of unretracted papers by the same authors remained unchanged.

In summary, publication rates of authors with multiple retractions, most of whom were associated with scientific misconduct, declined rapidly after their first retraction but a small minority continued to publish regularly.     

Perceptions of research integrity and the Chinese situation: In-depth interviews with Chinese biomedical researchers in Europe

ABSTRACT

Research misconduct has been a threat to Chinese biomedical research. Despite many publications dealing with research integrity in China, little empirical data is available concerning Chinese biomedical researchers’ perceptions of research integrity and misconduct. To learn more about this issue, we interviewed Chinese biomedical researchers in Europe to investigate their perceptions of this issue. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 participants until data saturation was reached. The findings indicate that certain aspects of research integrity need elaboration among Chinese biomedical researchers. Participants had a vague understanding of general concepts related to research integrity. Data fabrication, data falsification and plagiarism were perceived as the most severe deviance. Inappropriate authorship (especially gift authorship) and ghost writing were regarded as the most prevalent types of research misconduct in Chinese biomedical research. The harms of certain practices, such as inappropriate authorship, salami publication and multiple submission, were not well recognized. Attitudes toward research misconduct were divided. The current scientific evaluation system, pressures of promotion, motives for fame and other factors were perceived as the main reasons for research misconduct. Participants suggested various measures in addition to existing safeguards to improve research integrity in Chinese biomedical research.     

Noncompliance with Human Subjects’ Protection Requirements as a Reason for Retracting Papers: Survey of Retraction Notices on Medical Papers Published from 1981 to 2011

Though protection of human research subjects is universally recognized as a critical requirement for the ethical conduct of research, few studies have examined retractions of medical articles through apparent noncompliance with that requirement. From our survey of 99 retracted papers published from 1981 to 2011, we found that the basis for those decisions was poorly explained in retraction notices and that most of the articles continued to be cited. In retraction notices, the current manner of explaining failure to protect human subjects is misleading and confusing.     

Publishing pays: Economists’ salaries reflect productivity

We study salaries of economics faculty at the University of California to determine how publications affect salary. We find that each publication in a top 10 journal has a positive and significant effect on annual base salary of 1.5%, or $2,053. Unlike previous research, our analysis specifies the impact of publications in specific journals. Publications in American Economic Review, Econometrica, and Review of Economics and Statistics have an independent positive effect on salary. Compensation is also affected by faculty rank, seniority, university of employment, and teaching awards. Base salary does not significantly differ by gender, however, gross salary is about 9% lower for women. After controlling for migration and faculty rank, seniority has a negative impact on salary.     

试析清代北京通俗小说的出版与说唱业的关系——以侠义公案小说的形成为例

北京是清代通俗小说的出版中心之一,共有51家书坊刊刻通俗小说,计版本133个。通俗小说出版的繁盛时期是光绪年间,但绝大部分都是翻刻本或话本小说选本,仅有侠义公案小说例外,《三侠五义》《小五义》《续小五义》《彭公案》等作品都产生于北京。北京说唱业的发达为侠义公案小说的成书提供了契机,《三侠五义》的前身《龙图耳录》就是根据说唱本石韵书改编而来,但经过了文人的加工;《小五义》虽然经过整理,但仍然保存了说唱文学的许多特点。     

Retraction: From urban‐first to urban–rural integration: discourse and the development of social assistant policy in China

Zhang HM (2011). From urban‐first to urban–rural integration: discourse and the development of social assistance policy in China. International Journal of Social Welfare[E‐pub ahead of print, DOI: 10.1111/j.1468‐2397.2011.00791.x]. The above article, published online on 7 April 2011 in Wiley Online Library ( http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ ) has been retracted by agreement between the author, the journal Editors, Sven Hessle and Neil Gilbert, and Blackwell Publishing Ltd. The retraction has been agreed due to overlap between this article and material previously published elsewhere, including: Shi S‐J (2006). Left to Market and Family‐Again? Ideas and the Development of the Rural Pension Policy in China. Social Policy & Administration 40: 791–806. and Bleses P, Seeleib‐Kaiser M (2004). The Dual Transformation of the German Welfare State. Basingstoke, Hampshire, New York, Palgrave Macmillan Press.     

Awareness of Publication Guidelines and the Responsible Conduct of Research

We have conducted a longitudinal survey of NIH-funded F32 postdoctoral fellows to determine if mandated instruction in the responsible conduct of research (RCR) has measurable effects on awareness of, attentiveness to, and behavioral judgments about research ethics and authorship and publication. Of 418 F32 fellows participating in the study, 50% were aware of and had referred to guidelines on authorship and publication practices while 50% were either unaware of or had not referred to guidelines. Groups were similar with regard to total number of peer-reviewed publications and total number of first author publications, years of research experience, years since completing their doctoral degree, and receipt of RCR training. The equal distribution of guideline awareness and use, and group similarities with regard to career development and achievement provided us with an opportunity to consider whether awareness of and use of guidelines is associated with broader judgments about author roles and responsibilities. The findings suggest that awareness and utilization of guidelines are, at best, only modestly associated with more ethically appropriate judgments and attitudes about author roles and responsibilities among novice F32’s.     

Awareness of publication guidelines and the responsible conduct of research

We have conducted a longitudinal survey of NIH-funded F32 postdoctoral fellows to determine if mandated instruction in the responsible conduct of research (RCR) has measurable effects on awareness of, attentiveness to, and behavioral judgments about research ethics and authorship and publication. Of 418 F32 fellows participating in the study, 50% were aware of and had referred to guidelines on authorship and publication practices while 50% were either unaware of or had not referred to guidelines. Groups were similar with regard to total number of peer-reviewed publications and total number of first author publications, years of research experience, years since completing their doctoral degree, and receipt of RCR training. The equal distribution of guideline awareness and use, and group similarities with regard to career development and achievement provided us with an opportunity to consider whether awareness of and use of guidelines is associated with broader judgments about author roles and responsibilities. The findings suggest that awareness and utilization of guidelines are, at best, only modestly associated with more ethically appropriate judgments and attitudes about author roles and responsibilities among novice F32's.     

The Role of Media in Reporting Child Abuse

ABSTRACT

This study looks at the short-term impact that the media coverage of children in need of protection had on the number of cases reported to child protection agencies. The number of reports (N = 11,646) made to these agencies in Canada was tallied each week during a 24-month period. During the same period, a content analysis of print media was conducted regarding child maltreatment and/or child protection services (CPS) to identify and count the number of articles published (N = 1,211) and single out media frenzy events. Results show a statistically significant relationship between media coverage and the number of cases reported to child protection agencies.     

Rendering To Cesa: On the Australian Standard Classification of Occupations

In a recent number of the Journal Ian Cesa recognises the importance, for social researchers, of the newly developed Australian Standard Classification of Occupations, but offers an incorrect account based upon a superseded, preliminary draft. In this brief note a concise and correct summary of the classification is given with references to the relevant and current publications which explain the implementation of the classification for various purposes.     

Conflicted medical journals and the failure of trust

Journals are failing in their obligation to ensure that research is fairly represented to their readers, and must act decisively to retract fraudulent publications. Recent case reports have exposed how marketing objectives usurped scientific testing and compromised the credibility of academic medicine. But scant attention has been given to the role that journals play in this process, especially when evidence of research fraud fails to elicit corrective measures. Our experience with The Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP) illustrates the nature of the problem. The now-infamous Study 329 of paroxetine in adolescent depression was negative for efficacy on all eight protocol-specified outcomes and positive for harm, but JAACAP published a report of this study that concluded that "paroxetine is generally well tolerated and effective for major depression in adolescents." The journal's editors not only failed to exercise critical judgment in accepting the article, but when shown evidence that the article misrepresented the science, refused either to convey this information to the medical community or to retract the article.     

当代我国出版自由研究

当代我国的＂出版自由＂,应着眼于法律如何保障出版自由和如何规制出版自由。即现阶段我国＂出版自由＂的内涵是：出版自由是公民在宪法、法律规定的范围内,将作品编辑、加工并复制后向公众传播,以出版的形式发表意见来参与管理国家、公共等事务的权利。研究＂出版自由＂时应正确区分出版自由和政治自由、表达自由、新闻自由、议论自由的区别与联系。我国现行的法律法规有明确的《中华人民共和国著作权法》,却没有＂出版自由法＂,其实＂出版自由权＂与＂著作权＂有着至关重要的关系,出版自由权是著作权的前提和保证,而著作权则是出版自由权得以落实和具体化的司法手段。     

Cultural practice and utopian desire in German Social Democracy: Reading Adolf Levenstein's Arbeiterfrage (1912)

During the Wilhelmine period, leaders of the German Social Democratic Party began to redefine socialism as a 'cultural movement' which was concerned as much with the educational, artistic and leisure-time needs of workers as it was with trade union struggles and the future prospect of revolutionary social transformation. This drew them into a debate about the relationship between politics and 'culture', understood in terms of both 'high' and 'mass' culture, and the role of the latter in mobilizing German workers to the cause of socialism. Drawing on the methods of cultural studies, this article offers a close reading of Adolf Levenstein's important survey of the attitudes, 'hopes and wishes' of male rank-and-file Social Democrats and trade unionists from 1912, and his other related publications, in order to examine the ways in which German workers assigned meanings to cultural texts. In this way, it identifies the utopian political investments revealed in workers' leisure-time practices, ranging from poetry writing to novel reading, and their challenges to the structuring binarisms - oppositions between culture and politics, high culture and mass culture, art and everyday life, the masculine and the feminine, and reality and fantasy - of Social Democratic cultural politics in pre-war Germany.     

Hidden Gems: Systematically Searching Electronic Databases for Research Publications for Social Work and Social Care

Correspondence to Brian Taylor, Queen's University Belfast, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Mulhouse Building, Royal Victoria Hospital, Grosvenor Road, Belfast BT12 6BJ, Northern Ireland. E-mail: b.j.taylor{at}qub.ac.uk Summary Context: Electronic bibliographic databases are an importantsource for professional publications about social work and communitycare more generally. This article describes and evaluates amethod of identifying relevant articles as part of a systematicreview of research evidence. Decision making about institutionaland home care services for older people is used as an example.Method: Four databases (Social Science Citation Index, Medline,CINAHL and Caredata), which abstract publications relevant tohealth and social services, were searched systematically toidentify relevant research studies. The items retrieved wereappraised independently using a standard form developed forthe purpose. The searches were compared in terms of sensitivity,precision, overlap between databases and inter-rater reliability.Results: The search retrieved 525 articles, of which 276 wererelevant. The four databases retrieved 55 per cent, 41 per cent,19 per cent and 1 per cent of the relevant articles respectively,achieving these sensitivities with precision levels of 54 percent, 48 per cent, 84 per cent and 94 per cent. The databasesretrieved 116, 73, 24 and 15 unique relevant articles respectively,showing the need to use a range of databases. Discussion: Ageneral approach to creating a search to retrieve relevant researchhas been developed. The development of an international, indexeddatabase dedicated to literature relevant to social servicesis a priority to enable progress in evidence-based policy andpractice in social work. Editors and researchers should considerusing structured abstracts in order to improve the retrievaland dissemination of research.     

A Sledgehammer to Crack a Nut: Deportation, Detention and Dispersal in Europe

Since the increase in the numbers of asylum‐seekers arriving in Europe in the early 1990s, European countries of asylum have been implementing new and increased controls over entry and making conditions more difficult for asylum‐seekers while they are waiting for a decision on their case. This paper explores the ways in which four European asylum regimes use the deportation, detention and dispersal of asylum‐seekers in an attempt to control and exclude them from national societies and territories. Germany, France, Italy and the UK have different migration histories and have introduced different asylum policies at different times; but all have in common the increasingly draconian response to asylum‐seekers since the 1990s. The paper looks at the stated rationale for introducing and extending dispersal, deportation and detention. EU governments have introduced these measures, arguing that they will deter “fraudulent” asylum claims. While the number of claims has fallen in the last five years to the lowest level since 1988, there is no evidence that this is due to such policies. It is clear, however, that these policies penalize all asylum‐seekers, breach their human rights, damage the receiving societies as a whole, and as such should be abandoned.     

Retrospective on the utility theory of von Neumann and Morgenstern

This article offers an exegesis of the passages in von Neumann and Morgenstern (1944, 1947, 1953) that discuss their conception of utility. It is occasioned by two factors. First, as we approach the semicentennial of the publication of Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, its immense impact on economic thought in the intervening years encourages serious reflection on its authors' ideas. Second, misleading statements about the theory continue to appear. The article will have accomplished its purpose if it helps others appreciate the genius and spirit of the theory of utility fashioned by John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern.     

Adolescents' disclosure to best and good friends: The effects of gender and topic intimacy

The disclosure of 227 7th- through 12th-grade adolescents to four other persons – their closest same- and cross-sex best friends, and lesser-but-good same- and cross-sex friends – about 40 topics varying widely in intimacy was examined; in addition, each subject rated every topic's intimacy. A (2) gender × (2) friend's gender × (2) closeness × (3) age × (3) intimacy level ANOVA yielded two large main effects (partial ω² > .15), closeness and topic intimacy. Three large interaction effects – gender by friend's gender, friend's gender by intimacy, and gender by closeness by intimacy – were also found, as was a moderate-sized closeness by gender by friend's gender interaction (partial co₂= .08). A number of other effects were statistically significant but of only small magnitude. The perceived intimacy of 6 of the studied topics varied across age groups, and one topic, “your weight” was rated differently by males and females. The data are discussed in relation to previous research on adolescent gender differences in friendship and disclosure.