On March 7, a Sage journal published an expression of concern for an article "Determinants of COVID-19 vaccine-induced myocarditis" on cases of myocarditis in people who had received a COVID-19 vaccine. "The Editor and the publisher were alerted to potential issues with the research methodology and conclusions and author conflicts of interest" and had undertaken an investigation of the article, the notice stated. According to one of the authors, the investigation involved two new peer reviews of the paper.
When Azzurra Ruggeri of the Technical University of Munich saw the grant solicitation for bold new ideas in cultural studies, she was eager to submit her proposal to use her expertise as a developmental psychologist to study whether artificial intelligence (AI) could be designed to behave ethically. Only after Ruggeri applied did she notice an unusual condition in the grant competition’s rules: All applicants were required to review others who responded to the same solicitation, letting the funder take advantage of a ready-made pool of relevant experts.
The letter to the editor, published in December 2024 in Intensive Care Medicine, explored ways AI could help clinicians monitor blood circulation in patients in intensive care units. The 750-word letter included 15 references. Retraction Watch were able to locate the cited papers for five of the references, although one of them had an error in the publication year, and another had a different author order, page numbers and slight variations in the title. For the remaining 10, we couldn’t find articles with matching titles, either in the journal cited or any journal at all.
Read more: Medical journal publishes a letter on AI with a fake reference to itself
Would you pay $169 for an introductory ebook on machine learning with citations that appear to be made up? If not, you might want to pass on purchasing "Mastering Machine Learning: From Basics to Advanced", published by Springer Nature in April, 2025.
Read more: Springer Nature book on machine learning is full of made-up citations
The American Society For Testing And Materials (ASTM) International started an investigation into its Journal of Testing and Evaluation after an ASTM vendor noticed some “irregular patterns in the peer review” in a special issue. The papers were published between 2019 and 2024 in the journal, which began publishing in 1973, according to its website. The journal joins 75 others with at least 145 retractions.
Read more: Journal retracts nearly 150 articles for compromised peer review
For many scholarly societies, selling subscriptions to the journals they publish has historically been a key source of revenue, helping subsidize other work such as advocacy and providing scholarships. But the trend toward open-access publishing is threatening that income stream even as costs are rising, a recent survey indicates. More than 90% of the 66 societies that participated said the revenue they collect from publishing journals is not keeping pace with inflation, and about half reported a decrease.
Read more: Open-access revolution is squeezing scientific societies’ budgets, survey shows
A major scientific publisher, Taylor & Francis, said yesterday it has paused submissions to its journal Bioengineered so editors there can investigate some 1000 of its papers that bear signs they contain manipulated results or came from shady enterprises known as paper mills. As many journals grapple with how to effectively police a recent surge in articles from such profit-driven businesses, calling a full timeout to clean up the mess is a rare move, applauded by the research integrity sleuth who independently flagged the warning signs.
Read more: Journal plagued with problematic papers, likely from paper mills, pauses submissions
Physics and astronomy researchers in the United Kingdom have reacted with alarm to news that key government funding for particle physics, nuclear physics, and astronomy will be slashed by 30%. The cuts were announced in a letter to the affected research community from Michele Dougherty, executive chair of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), which funds physics and astronomy research and operates large science facilities across the country.
Read more: U.K. physics community braces for deep funding cuts
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Friday told staff members it has canceled subscriptions carried by its National Agricultural Library as part of a drive by President Donald Trump’s administration to cut federal spending. The move appears to drop nearly 400 of the library’s roughly 2000 journals, including many prominent in various agricultural subfields – but curiously none from the world’s three largest scientific publishers, all of which are for-profit. USDA staff members depicted the move as hasty, indiscriminate slashing.
Read more: DOGE order leads to journal cancellations by U.S. agricultural library