The journal Cureus has retracted a paper on cancer and the environment just weeks after Retraction Watch raised concerns about potential plagiarism in the article.
The paper, titled “Causes of Cancer in the World: Comparative Risk Assessment of Nine Behavioral and Environmental Risk Factors,” published in 2022, bore striking similarities to a 2005 article in The Lancet, sharing not only the title but also figures and wording that closely mirrored the earlier publication.
The retraction notice, issued on April 19, acknowledges that the title and figures were directly taken from The Lancet article, with the Cureus paper appearing to follow the earlier work on a sentence-by-sentence basis, including evidence of "tortured phrases." The journal expressed regret that these issues were not identified during the plagiarism check at the time of submission. The authors of the retracted paper have agreed with the decision to retract.
"Tortured phrases," as described elsewhere, are the result of words being translated from English into a foreign language and then back to English, potentially by automated means attempting to generate scholarly publications for unscrupulous authors.
The swift retraction of the paper underscores the importance of vigilant oversight in maintaining the integrity of scientific publications and upholding ethical standards in research.
