Were we just now talking about the finding at Nature that a Nobel laureate’s papers were six times more likely to get accepted?
So while we’re in this neck of the woods anyway, another Nature entry: “Concerns about image integrity have so far led to 17 retractions, corrections or expressions of concern for papers co-authored by geneticist Gregg Semenza.”
Commenters on the website PubPeer — where users scrutinize published research, often anonymously — have questioned images in 52 articles co-authored by Semenza that were published between 2000 and 2021. Since 2011, 17 of these papers have been retracted, corrected or had an expression of concern issued on them. The editorial notices cite the potential alteration, reuse or incorrect labelling of images showing experimental results. Another 15 of the papers are currently under investigation at their respective journals, Nature’s news team has learned.
Across the 32 papers that have so far drawn publisher scrutiny, all list Semenza as an author, but there are many combinations of different co-authors. – Holly Else
Is a pattern becoming apparent? Oh wait. There is no design in Nature, right? So they should quit complaining.