Since the start of the pandemic, journals have retracted more than 200 COVID-19related papers and counting, most of them in 2021. But such papers represent only about 5 percent of the more than 3,000 retractions weve indexed this year in the Retraction Watch Database. In what has become an annual tradition, here we present the top retraction stories of the year.
1Like a lot of people, Victor Grech, a pediatric heart specialist in Malta, really likes Star Trek. The problem is that Grech was able to turn an Elsevier journal called Early Human Development into something of a scientific fanzine, publishing dozens of articles for the periodical that were in a galaxy far, far outside the scope of its editorial interests. The publisher learned about the problematic papers in late 2020 from Hampton Gaddy, an undergrad at the University of Oxford in the UK. Grechs articles covered topics such as the role of nurses in Star Trek, the banality of evil in Star Trek, and the portrayal of doctors in, you guessed it, Star Trek. Grech eventually lost more than two dozen papers to retraction.
2In 2015, officials at the University of Colorado Denver concluded that one of its former faculty members, Hari Koul, needed to correct or retract nine papers over concerns about problematic images in the articles. But six years later, most of those articles remained intactand many of the journals involved said theyd never heard of the investigation. After Retraction Watch reported on the delay, journals pulled three articles by Koul, who had left Denver for Louisiana State University Health Science Center (LSU HSC) in Shreveport and eventually ended up at the schools New Orleans campus. Then, after local media reported on other allegations Retraction Watch had mentioned, LSU HSC New Orleans said it was investigating, and Koul stepped downfrom his post as department chair.
3When the journal Vaccine published a study in June claiming that COVID-19 vaccinations killed two people for every death they prevented, the scientific community was outraged. Two members of the journals editorial board stepped down to protest the article, which was written by Hararld Walach, described on his Wikipedia page as a parapsychologist and advocate of alternative medicine. Vaccine quickly issued an expression of concern for the paper and subsequently retracted it. Meanwhile, Walach, whose institution in Poland terminated his position in response to the controversy, has defended his groups analysis, saying that the data, while imperfect, were analyzed correctly. He also lost another paper, in JAMA Pediatrics, on COVID-19 and masks for children.
4Last year, scientists began to express doubts about the validity of data theyd been receiving from Jonathan Pruitt, a behavioral ecologist with a prestigious position at McMaster University in Canada, whose field research on spiders had helped underpin many publications. Pruitts articles quickly began to fall, and over the next year he lost a dozen papers. Late this year, Pruitts doctoral dissertation, which hed received from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, was withdrawn. Pruitt was placed on paid leave from McMaster and removed from the prestigious Canada 150 Chairs website.
5When Cyriac Abby Philips, a gastroenterologist in India, published a 2018 paper about a young woman whod suffered liver disease after taking herbal supplements, he didnt think that three years later hed be considering suing the journal for defamation. Philipss legal troubles started when he and his colleagues published their case study in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hepatology, an Elsevier title. Herbalife, which makes dietary supplements including the ones the patient took, pressured the journal, which ultimately decided to retract the work for legal reasons, as stated in the original retraction notice. That notice was later changed to say that the scientific methodology, analysis and interpretation of data underlying the article were insufficienta claim Philips called highly defamatory. He threatened to sue the publisher and the journal for the equivalent of US $1.35 million. The retraction notice promptly was changed again, and now cites legal pressures as it initially did.
6Retractions often take years, but not in this case. Barely a month after the publication of a paper claiming female scientists fare better under male mentors, Nature Communications retracted the article amid a storm of criticism. Written by a group from the Abu Dhabi campus of New York University, the paper was lambasted from the moment it appeared online in mid-November. As one statistician tweeted, the paper doesnt tell us much about the impact of gender on mentorship but it sure does tell us that the statistics community needs to do a better job teaching scientists about correlation, causation, and confounding. The authors said they agreed with the journals decision and said they felt deep regret that the publication of our research has both caused pain on an individual level and triggered such a profound response among many in the scientific community.
7Pierre Kory, then of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, testified to Congress in May 2020 that MATH+an intensive care regimen that includes methylprednisolone, ascorbic acid, thiamine, heparin, and co-interventionsslashed the risk of death from COVID-19 by 75 percent compared with other regimens. Then, last December, he and his colleagues published a paper in the Journal of Intensive Care Medicine about MATH+ (to which they later added the controversial drug ivermectin) saying as much, prompting questions from other experts about whether the effectiveness of the approach was overstated. Those concerns appear to be warranted. In November, the journal retracted Korys paper, citing inaccurately reported data from one of the study sites in the analysis.
8In late 2020, the journal Eurosurveillance announced that, in response to an international petition, it was looking more closely at a paper it had published at the start of the year on the validity of PCR testing for SARS-CoV-2 (at the time called 2019-nCoV). The news heartened critics of the article, who argued that PCR testing wasnt capable of identifying the virusand thus, positive tests were meaningless and shouldnt be used to guide public policy, especially economically damaging steps such as lockdowns. But two months later, the editors issued a statementsaying that the paper would stand (or more precisely, the criteria for a retraction of the article have not been fulfilled).
9Advocates for the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19 have little in the way of robust evidence to support their belief that the deworming drug is effective against the infection. One study many ivermectin fans pointed to this year appeared in Viruses in the spring. The randomized controlled trial purportedly found that a single dose of the drug led to fewer symptoms, lower viral load and reduced hospital admissions. Except that wasnt true. As BBC News reported, the study was found to have blocks of details of 11 patients that had been copied and pasted repeatedlysuggesting many of the trials apparent patients didnt really exist. The authors acknowledged that theyd mixed up their data files, and in November the journal retracted the paper, but not before the study had become part of a meta-analysis on the virtues of ivermectin for COVID-19, which as of this writing remains uncorrected.
10Finally, one of our favorites for the year. The Arabian Journal of Geosciences was forced to retract 44 articles from a special issue after readers pointed out that they appeared to be utter gibberish. The first clue? The titles read like a bunch of graduate students playing drunk Mad Libs: Neural networkbased urban rainfall trend estimation and adolescent anxiety management; Distribution of earthquake activity in mountain area based on embedded system and physical fitness detection of basketball. A guest editor of the journal, which is owned by Springer Nature, at one point blamed an email hack for the nonsense articles. In fact, the 44 were just the tip of the sand dune for Springer Nature. More than 400 papers in journals owned by the companyand hundreds more at journals owned by Elsevierhave been flagged for similar problems.
Ivan Oransky and Adam Marcus are the founders ofRetraction Watch. Email them atteam@retractionwatch.com, follow them on Twitter @RetractionWatch, and sign up for their daily newsletter.
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The Top Retractions of 2021 - The Scientist
- Understanding Menopause and its Symptoms | Menopause Treatment Options - Medriva - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- Breast cancer survivor Jayne Pritchard talks alternative therapies over tea - MidlandToday - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- 12 unusual ways Israelis are volunteering during the war - ISRAEL21c - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- Complementary and alternative medicine - NHS - December 26th, 2022 [December 26th, 2022]
- Alternative Treatment (CAM) for MS: Types, Side Effects & Cost - December 26th, 2022 [December 26th, 2022]
- Complementary and alternative medicine | History & Facts - December 26th, 2022 [December 26th, 2022]
- Alternative medicine: Definition, examples, benefits, and risks - October 28th, 2022 [October 28th, 2022]
- Alternative Medicine: The Science Behind 10 Alternative Therapies - October 21st, 2022 [October 21st, 2022]
- Detoxification (alternative medicine) - Wikipedia - October 21st, 2022 [October 21st, 2022]
- Alternative Approaches to Mental Health and Wellbeing - Psychiatric Times - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- New practice focuses on dental sleep medicine, providing an alternative for patients who use CPAP machines - PennLive - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- Dr. Deepak Chopra Aligns with Plant-Based Therapeutics Company ProVEDA to Highlight Topical Pain Relief Solutions - Yahoo Finance - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- True REST Float Spa Offers Free Floatation Therapy Session to Veterans - AccessWire - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- Youve been told you need surgery for degenerative disc disease and stenosis of the spine. Now what? - Sonoran News - October 19th, 2022 [October 19th, 2022]
- Can you take Paxlovid and heart disease medications at the same time? - Medical News Today - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Kardashian fans think theyve unlocked Kourtneys secret to hiding her pregnancy after spotting key detai... - The US Sun - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Cabinet approves B5bn for 'Andaman International Health Center' - The Phuket News - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Eye health and dynamics of the modern world - The Citizen - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- The Holistic Review on Occurrence, Biology, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma - Cureus - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- 10 Deeper Causes of Tinnitus, and How to Treat It - The Epoch Times - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) - GoodTherapy - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- India's alternative medicine industry grows, boosted by COVID-19 pandemic - CNA - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- QC Kinetix (Charlotte) Offers Alternative Treatments for Knee Pain and Sports Injuries - Yahoo Finance - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Plant Extracts Market is expected to generate a revenue of USD 85.09 Billion by 2030, Globally, at 6.33% CAGR: Verified Market Research - Yahoo... - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Neuroplasticity Nonsense Is Full of Red Flags - Science Based Medicine - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Diabetics won't be made to pay for alternative medicines, Pharmac says - Stuff - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Lili Reinhart Becomes A Reiki Master: My Journey Into Reiki Healing Cant Be Simplified - IMDb - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- The DRIPBaR is Coming to Clarksville, TN on Oct 16, 2022 - PR Web - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- How Dr. Oz Boosted an Osteopath Who Became a Top Spreader of Covid Misinformation Mother Jones - Mother Jones - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- World Arthritis Day: Arthritis and Women - Times of India - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- What Is Alternative Medicine? - American Cancer Society - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Herbal medicine: Types, uses, and safety - Medical News Today - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- WCI Health LLC, Your Alternative Health and Wellness Hub Will Be a Vendor and Presenter at Wonderland Miami by Microdose - StreetInsider.com - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- The Viral Real - Journal #130 October 2022 - E-Flux - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Pregabalin Market to Grow by USD 153.03 Mn from 2022 to 2026, Driven by Presence of Large Patient Pool Related To Neuropathic Pain - Technavio - Yahoo... - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Woman, 37, dies after herbal supplements led to liver failure: coroner - Insider - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- What Is Vitiligo? All About This Unique Skin Condition That Impacts Skin Pigmentation, and How To Treat It - Parade Magazine - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Herbalist's Resource Guide to Cannabis and Other Plants That Can Prevent Cancer - PR Web - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Tasly Pharmaceuticals to Exhibit at BioJapan 2022 -- Bio-Pharmaceutical Company to Join with Maryland-Bas - Benzinga - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- "Sh*t, I just want to get better. Thats what pushed me to do it, and it worked well" Chauncey Billups and other NBA stars on acupuncture -... - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- People Science and Symbiome Partner to study the microbiome in the real world - Benzinga - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Bob Newhart Proves 93 Is the New 39 - Eat This, Not That - September 29th, 2022 [September 29th, 2022]
- Medical cannabis could be better alternative to opioids in managing pain - The Tribune India - September 29th, 2022 [September 29th, 2022]
- Woman killed by herbal remedies she took to treat arthritis - Evening Standard - September 29th, 2022 [September 29th, 2022]
- Get To Know The Best Natural Adderall Alternatives - Over The Counter and Non Prescription - Outlook India - September 29th, 2022 [September 29th, 2022]
- King Charles III Has a History of Promoting 'Quackery' Alternative Medicine - Newsweek - September 9th, 2022 [September 9th, 2022]
- Remedy Place: The Fashionable Social Wellness Club Where You Can Bring All Your Friends - Vogue - September 9th, 2022 [September 9th, 2022]
- Thailand heightens its healthcare hub ambition with integrative medicine - PR Newswire UK - September 9th, 2022 [September 9th, 2022]
- How bogus cancer treatments prey on the most vulnerable - Coda Story - September 9th, 2022 [September 9th, 2022]
- Management of Chronic Migraine in Children and Adolescents | PHMT - Dove Medical Press - September 9th, 2022 [September 9th, 2022]
- Mouth Taping: Is It Safe? - Health Essentials - September 9th, 2022 [September 9th, 2022]
- Queen Elizabeth: Seven things you need to know about the Queens passing - Toronto Star - September 9th, 2022 [September 9th, 2022]
- Building an Alternative Medical Economy in Response to 'Tyranny': Telehealth CEO - The Epoch Times - August 30th, 2022 [August 30th, 2022]
- Sesame oil: Nutrition, benefits, and more - Medical News Today - August 30th, 2022 [August 30th, 2022]
- Regenerative Medicine: An alternative to surgery and pills | Loop Cayman Islands - Loop News Cayman - August 30th, 2022 [August 30th, 2022]
- Find Euphoria: the luxury Greek spa retreat to visit now - Tatler - August 30th, 2022 [August 30th, 2022]
- What Is Synthetic Urine & How Does It Help To Pass A Drug Test? - The Island Now - August 30th, 2022 [August 30th, 2022]
- The science behind the healthtech startup must be understood well - Express Healthcare - August 30th, 2022 [August 30th, 2022]
- Best-in-class second-line HIV treatment rolls out in Zambia and Nigeria - Clinton Health Access Initiative - August 30th, 2022 [August 30th, 2022]
- Therapeutic effect of HFNC and NIV in patients with AECOPD | COPD - Dove Medical Press - August 30th, 2022 [August 30th, 2022]
- Five years after Kymriah: Ensuring the next cell and gene therapies reach patients - STAT - August 30th, 2022 [August 30th, 2022]
- Meet these renowned healthcare professionals who assist us in leading healthier lives - Oneindia - August 30th, 2022 [August 30th, 2022]
- Diet and Vitiligo: The Story So Far - Cureus - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- Fatphobia Sucks, Especially If You're Trying to Have a Baby - VICE - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- Orthomolecular Medicine, A Predictive Tool - Nation World News - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- COVID-19 vaccines and the Nuremberg Code - Science Based Medicine - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- Bolstering the Blood-CNS Barrier Could Lead to New Treatment Approach for Multiple Sclerosis - University of Utah Health Care - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- Lockdowns Postponed the Inevitable. Is That a Bad Thing? - Science Based Medicine - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- The Impact of Complementary and Alternative Medicine on Insomnia: A Systematic Review - Cureus - August 27th, 2022 [August 27th, 2022]
- Ayurveda As Alternative Medicine: Research And Development To Be Taken Ahead By Heal In India - Entrepreneur - August 27th, 2022 [August 27th, 2022]
- French Doctolib platform accused of 'promoting alternative medicine' - The Connexion - August 27th, 2022 [August 27th, 2022]
- Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Best Ways for Treating This Condition - Healthline - August 27th, 2022 [August 27th, 2022]
- Ellen White reveals "traumatic" incident that played huge role in her retirement - GIVEMESPORT - August 27th, 2022 [August 27th, 2022]
- Curcumin and Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma: Does It Help? - Healthline - August 27th, 2022 [August 27th, 2022]
- In Denial: When Patients Don't Want to Believe They Have Cancer - Medscape - August 27th, 2022 [August 27th, 2022]
- Piotr Szyhalski depicts living through COVID-19 and other extreme historical phenomena - MinnPost - August 27th, 2022 [August 27th, 2022]
- Researchers identify chemo alternative for targeted treatment of leukemia patients - Devdiscourse - August 27th, 2022 [August 27th, 2022]
- India Can Show The World The Right Path For Medical Pluralism - News18 - August 27th, 2022 [August 27th, 2022]
- Complementary and Integrative Medicine - Reeve Foundation - Christopher Reeve Foundation - August 23rd, 2022 [August 23rd, 2022]
- Back pain: Exploring alternative treatments - Health - Life & Style - Ahram Online - August 23rd, 2022 [August 23rd, 2022]