last updated by Pluto on 2025-07-18 08:26:34 UTC on behalf of the NeuroFedora SIG.
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After photographs showed President Donald Trump with swollen ankles and bruised hands, the White House revealed he has chronic venous insufficiency—a blood vessel disease that affects circulation in the legs
in Scientific American on 2025-07-17 21:18:00 UTC.
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The park’s newest hydrothermal feature has an otherworldly milky texture from dissolved silica
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Long-awaited results of a three-person IVF technique suggest that mitochondrial donation can prevent babies from inheriting diseases caused by mutant mitochondria
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A home economics journal delisted from Scopus last year has called the decision “biased against journals from developing countries.”
Elsevier delisted the journal Nurture, published by “Nurture Publishing Group,” from the publisher’s citation database in June 2024, after indexing it for a dozen years. In an editorial published this April, Sadie Ahmad, the editorial manager for Nurture, wrote Scopus delisted the journal for three reasons: an increase in the number of scientific articles published, papers in topics beyond the scope of the journal, and an uptick of authors from different countries.
A representative from Elsevier told us Scopus’ decision was also a result of “weak quality” of papers and “low citation metrics compared to what one would expect of a journal with such history and scope.” The journal has been publishing since 2007.
The journal appealed the decision last July, but was rejected a month later since “the appeal was not warranted and the provided comments did not change the overall judgement and outcome of the review,” the Elsevier spokesperson said.
Ahmad did not respond to our multiple requests for comment. But in the editorial, Ahmad refuted each of the stated reasons for the delisting, and called Elsevier’s rejection of the journal’s appeal “vague and dismissive.”
“The case of Nurture is a warning to the global academic community,” Ahmad wrote. “If we do not demand fairness and accountability from powerful indexing agencies, we risk losing the very principles of equity and diversity that scholarly publishing should uphold.”
Nurture is a self-described “trans-disciplinary” journal formerly published by the Pakistan Home Economics Association. It covers topics “that have direct or indirect relevance to individuals, families, and communities,” according to its website, ranging from family dynamics to economics to textiles. The journal is not indexed in Clarivate’s Web of Science.
The journal’s “Contact Us” page lists its address as 207 Regent Street, London. Some 3,800 companies are registered to that location, which one UK financial news site, This Is Money, called a “scammer’s paradise.” Neither the Pakistan Home Economics Association nor Nurture Publishing Group is listed in the UK’s company registry.
In response to Scopus’ reasons for the delisting, Ahmad wrote the journal published “only 64” papers in 2023, up from 11 the year before. All of those articles “matched the journal’s aims and scope,” Ahmad wrote, attributing the increase to a “new and active editorial board” which “helped bring more submissions.”
The journal’s website currently lists 83 editorial board members from over 20 different countries, although Ahmad wrote some editors “were emotionally disturbed by the language” Scopus used to justify the decision, “and some resigned from their honorary roles.”
The editorial team viewed the increase in author diversity as a “positive change,” according to Ahmad, who noted the board “focused on regional diversity and published articles from several nations.” Elsevier’s website mentions journals are evaluated on diversity.
Another critique Scopus raised, Ahmad wrote, was that “almost all authors” publishing in Nurture “are based in developing countries and/or weak institutions.” And the company noted a large number of Chinese authors based in Thailand, which, according to the editorial, Scopus called “a strange phenomenon.” An Elsevier spokesperson confirmed this language was used in the review comments for the journal.
Ahmad called the pattern a “global trend” and argued “such a comment reflects prejudice, not a sound academic evaluation.”
“The use of terms like ‘weak institutions’ and pointing out authors from ‘China’ and ‘Russia’ shows unethical and biased behavior,” Ahmad wrote.
A representative from Elsevier told us the decision to delist the journal was “not because there are authors from developing countries, however, the geographical diversity for this journal is limited for what one would expect for such journal [sic].”
Ahmad wrote that Scopus told the journal it had “gone astray” and the citations “reflect this,” noting only one of its 190 papers had more than 11 citations. (Scopus itself shows 162 indexed papers for Nurture, with four that have over 11 citations.)
“I have never discovered a standard for per-article citations,” Ahmad wrote, citing Scopus’ content policy and selection page that lists three “benchmarks” indexed journals must meet. These include self-citation rate, total citation rate, and CiteScore metrics, a measurement developed by Elsevier akin to Clarivate’s impact factor metric.
Among Ahmad’s complaints was confusion about who is responsible for Scopus’ decision. Ahmad wrote Scopus “claimed to follow advice” from its advisory board but “can also make changes without prior notice.”
According to the content policy page, Elsevier “follows the independent advice” from its Content Selection and Advisory Board of subject experts, but Scopus is still responsible for final decisions.
Like Retraction Watch? You can make a tax-deductible contribution to support our work, follow us on X or Bluesky, like us on Facebook, follow us on LinkedIn, add us to your RSS reader, or subscribe to our daily digest. If you find a retraction that’s not in our database, you can let us know here. For comments or feedback, email us at team@retractionwatch.com.
in Retraction watch on 2025-07-17 18:51:38 UTC.
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Neuroscientists have found that the brain can wake up in different ways, explaining why some mornings feel like a dream and some feel like a disaster
in Scientific American on 2025-07-17 17:50:00 UTC.
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Scientists are racing to learn as much as possible about the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS before it fades from view forever
in Scientific American on 2025-07-17 13:30:00 UTC.
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Springer Nature is retracting a book on machine learning that had multiple references to works that do not exist, Retraction Watch has learned.
The move comes two weeks after we reported on the book’s fake references.
The link to the information page for the book, Mastering Machine Learning: From Basics to Advanced, now returns “Page not found,” and the text is no longer listed under the book series on computer systems and networks.
Springer Nature confirmed the removal is part of the retraction process: “The book is being retypeset, including with the addition of a retraction note, to reflect its retracted status. Once that has been completed, it will be back on the website (clearly marked as retracted),” Tim Kersjes, Head of Research Integrity, Resolutions, at the company, told Retraction Watch.
As we previously reported, many of the citations at the end of chapters contained significant errors, referencing works or chapters of books that do not exist. We confirmed a few of these errors with four people cited in the references.
These types of errors are common in text generated by large language models like ChatGPT. Using AI without declaration for anything besides copy editing is against Springer Nature’s policies.
As of June 26, the book, which sold for $169, had been accessed 3,782 times, according to its information page.
Following our coverage, Yung En Chee, a quantitative ecologist at the University of Melbourne, contacted her university library, which had the book in its catalog. According to her post on Bluesky and emails we have seen, on July 2, Chee asked the library to “pause access, or ask Springer Nature for an explanation or refund.” The library sent her an update saying the publisher told them they were aware of the problem and were currently investigating what happened. The book was removed from the library’s catalog by July 14.
Kersjes told us Springer Nature is “committed to publishing content that is accurate, trustworthy, and aligned with the highest editorial standards,” and is “reviewing this case carefully so we can understand what went wrong and ensure it does not happen again.”
Springer Nature has retracted books before, as have other publishers.
The author of the book, Govindakumar Madhavan, did not respond to our request for comment. According to his author bio, Madhavan is the founder and CEO of SeaportAI.
Like Retraction Watch? You can make a tax-deductible contribution to support our work, follow us on X or Bluesky, like us on Facebook, follow us on LinkedIn, add us to your RSS reader, or subscribe to our daily digest. If you find a retraction that’s not in our database, you can let us know here. For comments or feedback, email us at team@retractionwatch.com.
in Retraction watch on 2025-07-16 18:57:09 UTC.
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Household energy expenses will rise, as will greenhouse gas emissions, as a result of the Trump administration's One Big Beautiful Bill Act
in Scientific American on 2025-07-16 18:15:00 UTC.
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New deep-brain-stimulation implants for Parkinson’s disease can listen in on brain waves and adapt to treat symptoms. Can this approach target other conditions?
in Scientific American on 2025-07-16 16:00:00 UTC.
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Observations of a baby star may show the earliest stages of planet formation that astronomers have ever seen
in Scientific American on 2025-07-16 15:45:00 UTC.
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The LHCb experiment has observed a new difference between matter and antimatter in particles called baryons
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A neurologist explains why weather changes from heat waves to thunderstorms might bring on painful headaches
in Scientific American on 2025-07-16 12:00:00 UTC.
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China is pulling ahead of the rest of the world in sinking data centers that power AI into the ocean as an alternate way to keep them cool
in Scientific American on 2025-07-16 10:30:00 UTC.
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After 10 years of gravitational-wave research, the LIGO Lab team at MIT is getting ready for the next generation of detectors.
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A prominent cancer research lab is up to three retractions and six corrections for “highly similar” images in papers published between 2018 and 2022.
The lab is led by Kounosuke Watabe at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Watabe holds one of three Wake Forest professorships all funded by a $2.8 million donation for cancer research in 2016.
Each of the retractions and corrections came after sleuth Kevin Patrick raised concerns about the articles on PubPeer in May 2024. Patrick, who identified instances of images in Watabe lab papers being “more similar than expected,” told Retraction Watch he wasn’t confident whether the image duplication could be attributed to misconduct. “I am never sure which is worse, misconduct or a pattern of errors. Neither seem to inspire confidence in the published results,” he said.
Watabe did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Mark Anderson, the assistant vice president of strategic communications at Wake Forest, also did not respond to our requests for comment via phone and email, nor did the general media contact listed online. Patrick told us he reached out to the university when he identified the image issues and never heard back.
The first retracted paper, on chronic nicotine exposure and metastatic lung cancer, was published in Oncogene in 2022. The authors retracted it in January for “highly similar ex vivo brain images,” which the authors said was a result of “mismanaged” data, according to the notice. The article has been cited 65 times, according to Clarivate’s Web of Science.
In a May 2024 PubPeer comment, Patrick, who uses the pseudonym “Actinopolyspora biskrensis,” had also questioned one of the paper’s citations. The work cited a paper that “was peer reviewed, accepted, and published in 5 days” from Journal of Cancer Science and Research, a journal “commonly believed” to be published by a predatory publisher. The journal appeared on Beall’s list, a controversial catalog of suspect publishers that went dark in 2017, and is not indexed in the Web of Science.
The same authors agreed to retract a 2021 paper in Nature Communications suggesting nicotine promotes the spread of breast cancer. That article has been cited 180 times. The May 2025 notice also cited mismanaged data and similar images in the work.
A spokesperson for Nature Communications confirmed the journal investigated the paper after being alerted to PubPeer comments. When we asked what the notice meant by “errors in data handling,” the spokesperson told us the question was “best answered by the authors.”
The group also lost a third paper in May, this one in Breast Cancer Research, for “highly similar images.” All the authors who responded to the journal disagreed with the retraction, although they admitted the images were “incorrect,” the notice states. The article, published in 2021, has been cited 29 times.
Patrick pointed out on PubPeer last year that one of the figures in that paper “seems to have been published” by the same authors in an earlier paper “where it is described differently.”
A representative from Springer Nature, which publishes the three journals, told us each of the retractions was initiated after journals became aware of concerns on PubPeer and that they didn’t plan to investigate any other papers by the same researchers.
The spokesperson also told us two of the Oncogene corrections were spurred by PubPeer, while the authors requested a correction on the third.
Five of the six corrections on papers coauthored by Watabe were also for image duplication. In the remaining article, a 2019 Oncogene paper, the authors “inadvertently omitted” dividing lines in blots and “incorrectly stated” the source of a cell line, according to the notice.
Hui-Wen Lo, the corresponding author of that paper and two others, responded to the concerns raised on PubPeer. In response to questions on a different Oncogene paper that received a correction for reusing an image from a previous publication, the corresponding author called the duplication an “an oversight on our part” and an “honest mistake.”
And Watabe responded on PubPeer to a post from Patrick pointing out a 2019 eBioMedicine paper contained images that “overlap, but are described as representing different treatment groups.” Watabe replied that the images were “inadvertently switched.” He said the authors requested a correction to the article. However, Patrick later commented the images had been completely replaced in the correction, and asked Watabe to clarify. Watabe did not respond.
In addition to the 2016 donation that established Watabe’s professorship, all of the studies were funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, according to the research funding statements on the papers.
One of the corrected papers published in Cancer Research was also funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.
When we asked how the journal was alerted to issues with the papers and whether they would look into other papers by the Watabe lab, Christine Battle, vice president and publisher at the American Association for Cancer Research, which publishes the journal, said “We don’t comment on specific cases.”
Like Retraction Watch? You can make a tax-deductible contribution to support our work, follow us on X or Bluesky, like us on Facebook, follow us on LinkedIn, add us to your RSS reader, or subscribe to our daily digest. If you find a retraction that’s not in our database, you can let us know here. For comments or feedback, email us at team@retractionwatch.com.
in Retraction watch on 2025-07-15 22:02:24 UTC.
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Social inequality and the decay of democratic institutions are linked to accelerated aging, but education seems to slow the process
in Scientific American on 2025-07-15 20:30:00 UTC.
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The Trump administration wants to reduce the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s budget by $2.2 billion, eliminating research that might help advance AI weather models
in Scientific American on 2025-07-15 18:15:00 UTC.
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A U.S. gravitational wave detector spotted a collision between fast-spinning “forbidden” black holes that challenge physics models
in Scientific American on 2025-07-15 17:00:00 UTC.
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A person in Arizona recently died of pneumonic plague—a rare and severe form of the disease. An expert explains how the bacteria that spurred the Black Death centuries ago continues to claim lives
in Scientific American on 2025-07-15 16:45:00 UTC.
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Your favorite word game with a twist of science
in Scientific American on 2025-07-15 13:00:00 UTC.
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Bird flu fears have focused on the poultry and dairy industries and human health. But wild animals are threatened, too—at scales no one fully understands
in Scientific American on 2025-07-15 13:00:00 UTC.
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The H5N1 avian flu is circulating in cows and other mammals. Whether it will make a permanent leap to humans is another question
in Scientific American on 2025-07-15 13:00:00 UTC.
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Bird flu was nearly everywhere in the U.S.—in chickens, cows, pet cats and even humans. Cases have gone down, but experts warn that it hasn’t disappeared
in Scientific American on 2025-07-15 13:00:00 UTC.
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Influenza viruses like bird flu can mix and match their genomes, and this has played a role in at least three of the last four flu pandemics
in Scientific American on 2025-07-15 13:00:00 UTC.
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Newly discovered “Gwada-negative” is the rarest of 48 known blood groups
in Scientific American on 2025-07-15 11:00:00 UTC.
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When large masses of water are moved from one place to another, this changes the shape of Earth and leads to a phenomenon called true polar wander
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Many states, including Texas, have not used billions of dollars from FEMA intended to reduce damage from flooding and other disasters
in Scientific American on 2025-07-14 20:30:00 UTC.
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A dean at an Australian university sought to correct some of his papers. He received a retraction instead.
We wrote last year about Marcel Dinger, dean of science at the University of Sydney, who was a coauthor on five papers with multiple references that had been retracted. In May 2024, Alexander Magazinov, a scientific sleuth and software engineer based in Kazakhstan, had flagged the papers on PubPeer for “references of questionable reliability.” Magazinov credited the Problematic Paper Screener with helping him find them.
Dinger told us at the time he intended to work with editors to determine whether the five papers should be corrected or retracted.
This May, one of the papers, published in 2021 in The Journal of Drug Targeting, was retracted – with a statement that the authors didn’t agree with the decision. The article has been cited 14 times, according to Clarivate’s Web of Science.
We followed up with Dinger, who told us he and his coauthors had reached out to the journal with a correction note. “As the conclusions of the paper were not impacted by the retracted citations, the authors felt that a corrigendum was an appropriate measure to uphold the integrity of the scholarly record,” Dinger said.
This correction note coincided with the editorial team and publisher’s investigation, which a Taylor & Francis spokesperson told us “was prompted by concerns, raised initially by third parties and subsequently by one of the authors, regarding references cited in the review article which had later been retracted.”
The investigation “identified enough concern about the relevance and accuracy of other references that we and the Editorial Team no longer had confidence in the content presented and concluded that a retraction was required,” the spokesperson said.
But Dinger told us “the journal did not supply the authors with any specific information regarding the remaining concern on the ‘relevance and accuracy of some other references’ cited in the publication, so we were unable to assess the Editorial Team and Publisher’s basis for retraction.”
One of the other flagged papers received a lengthy correction in December, which the authors agreed with. Dinger told us he “contacted the associated journals in June last year with corrigendums,” but the other three papers remain unmarked.
Mohammad Taheri, a coauthor on all five of the papers, said in an interview he also disagreed with the retraction because “there [were] no irrelevant citation[s].” Taheri has nearly 100 papers with comments on PubPeer. He has responded to many of these comments, including on the recent retraction.
Dinger declined to comment when asked about his collaboration with Taheri and if he knew about the large number of his papers on PubPeer. He coauthored 15 papers with him from 2020 to 2022 but has not published with him since.
Like Retraction Watch? You can make a tax-deductible contribution to support our work, follow us on X or Bluesky, like us on Facebook, follow us on LinkedIn, add us to your RSS reader, or subscribe to our daily digest. If you find a retraction that’s not in our database, you can let us know here. For comments or feedback, email us at team@retractionwatch.com.
in Retraction watch on 2025-07-14 19:34:04 UTC.
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in Science News: AI on 2025-07-14 16:00:00 UTC.
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Better assessment of stress and tailored approaches to combat it could give clinicians the tools they need to fend off lasting damage to health
in Scientific American on 2025-07-14 14:00:00 UTC.
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Illnesses from stealthy pathogens known as Vibrio are advancing northward along numerous coasts, potentially ruining your summer vacation
in Scientific American on 2025-07-14 13:00:00 UTC.
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Super Agers author Eric Topol unpacks the rise of biological age tests—from organ clocks to immune system clocks—and how they might revolutionize early diagnosis of disease
in Scientific American on 2025-07-14 11:00:00 UTC.
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This AI system can analyze up to one million DNA letters at once, predicting how tiny changes in noncoding regions trigger everything from cancer to rare genetic disorders—and potentially revolutionizing personalized medicine
in Scientific American on 2025-07-14 11:00:00 UTC.