Research Integrity & Misconduct
Coverage of the integrity of the research record: retractions and corrections, misconduct investigations and their outcomes, paper mills and image manipulation, authorship disputes, and peer-review manipulation. Reporting here is held to a higher evidentiary bar than any other beat on the site — allegations are distinguished from findings, and institutional processes are described accurately rather than summarised loosely.
Beats in this category
- Misconduct Investigations & Findings
Institutional and agency investigations into research misconduct and their outcomes. Reporting distinguishes carefully between allegation, ongoing investigation, and formal finding…
- Retractions & Corrections
Individual and mass retractions, expressions of concern, and corrections to the published record — what triggered them, how the publisher handled them, and what the retraction noti…
All coverage (58)
- BMJ Public Health Retracts Mostert COVID-19 Vaccine Paper, Two Years After First Flagging It
BMJ Public Health retracted Saskia Mostert’s COVID-19 vaccine mortality paper on Aug. 11, 2026, roughly two years after first flagging it — after the paper was cited in a June 2026 Senate hearing whil…
- Bangladesh’s 325-Paper Retraction Wave: Institutions, Named Researchers, and What’s Driving It
A Prothom Alo investigation counted 325 papers linked to Bangladeshi institutions retracted between 2019 and June 2026 — plus named researchers with double-digit counts, a former vice-chancellor’s pap…
- IMPACC Cohort: Anellovirus, Not EBV, Tracks Long COVID Disability
A 1,154-patient IMPACC cohort study found anellovirus reactivation, not EBV, tracks long-term disability in long COVID — and revises what EBV reactivation actually signals.…
- Fraudulent Survey Vendor Contaminated NIH-Funded Research: First Retraction Lands as Op4G/Slice MR Case Proceeds
Fabricated Op4G/Slice MR survey data reached NIH-funded studies at Northwestern, UNC and U Chicago. One retraction is in; here is what PIs should do.…
- Dry Labbing: The Case for a Distinct Category of Scientific Fraud
A 2026 Science and Justice paper argues dry labbing, reporting results for tests never run, is fabrication, not falsification, and deserves its own category.…
- Five Tools That Check for Hallucinated Citations — and What They Still Miss
A July 2026 arXiv study tests five hallucinated-citation checkers and finds none reliable enough to run unsupervised. What each tool gets right, and wrong.…
- A Psychedelic-Therapy Paper Has Sat Under an Expression of Concern Since March. Sage Still Hasn’t Decided.
Sage issued an Expression of Concern on a 2021 Journal of Humanistic Psychology paper on 12 March 2026, more than a year after a retraction request. As of August 2026 no final decision has been announ…
- Karnataka Orders Criminal Cases Against 249 Guest Lecturers Over Fake PhD Certificates
Karnataka’s Collegiate Education Department has ordered criminal cases and permanent blacklisting for 249 guest lecturers after universities confirmed the PhD certificates they submitted to secure gov…
- After Police Removed Scientists From Its Meeting, the ADA Faces a Fight Over Diabetes Care’s Editorial Independence
Police removed 5 researchers from ADA’s June meeting over a Diabetes Care editorial. 200+ members now demand resignations and editorial independence.…
- Salk Institute’s Satchidananda Panda to Resign Following Sexual Misconduct Investigation
Circadian biologist Satchidananda Panda will leave the Salk Institute for Biological Studies on 13 August 2026, ending a 22-year tenure, after an independent investigation into sexual misconduct alleg…
- A Bad Dataset Came Down for Copyright, Not for Being Wrong
Kaggle removed a flawed stroke-detection dataset in July 2026 after a copyright complaint — five months after a research-integrity complaint about the same data went nowhere. Three Scientific Reports …
- 229 Countries That Weren’t There: Inside an Ecological Economics Data-Mismatch Investigation
The paper claimed 229 countries of data; its cited source lists at most 143 in any year of the study window. The journal’s investigation remains open.…
- HHS Presses a Publisher Over an Expression of Concern: The Sage Open Medicine Letter
HHS Secretary Kennedy has given Sage Open Medicine until Aug. 15, 2026 to justify a May expression of concern, citing COPE notice-transparency rules. Verified timeline and open questions.…
- Thirty Flagged Papers, Four Retractions: An Anaesthesiology Network Under Scrutiny
Of 30 papers flagged on PubPeer, four by Reyhan Polat and one by Julide Ergil are now retracted. ESAIC is due to report on its Ergil review by 31 August 2026.…
- Anna Abalkina Wins Rosalind Franklin Prize for Exposing Hijacked Journals
Freie Universität Berlin has awarded its 2026 Rosalind Franklin Prize to Anna Abalkina, co-creator of the Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker.…
- 401 US Patents Cite Retracted Papers, New Analysis Finds
A July 2026 SSRN preprint by KAIST researcher Hana Kim finds 401 granted US patents cite retracted scientific papers, and that an audit of a high-impact subset found substantial reliance on the retrac…
- Shanghai Jiao Tong Opens Investigation After Undisclosed Death in Gene-Editing Trial
Shanghai Jiao Tong University has opened a formal investigation, and Nature has posted an editor’s note, after Science and Retraction Watch reported that a 6-year-old girl died days after an experimen…
- Jason Arday Resigns From Cambridge as University Opens New Inquiry Into Qualifications
Jason Arday resigned his Cambridge professorship and Jesus College fellowship on 5 August 2026 as the university opened a new inquiry into his qualifications and honorary appointments, alongside a sep…
- Research Square Withdraws Preprints Over Nepal-Linked Paper-Mill Network
Research Square withdrew three preprints tied to a Nepal-run, 1,000-member research network; ESMO and AHA are now reviewing further submissions.…
- COPE’s Retraction Guidelines Now Name AI Non-Disclosure and Paper Mills
COPE’s current retraction guidelines, revised in 2025, explicitly list undisclosed AI-generated content and third-party/paper-mill authorship as grounds for retraction alongside the established criter…
- Why China’s Corresponding-Author Counts Run High
Nature reports China’s multiple-corresponding-author rate hit ~30% by 2020, up from 21.6% in 2016 — tied to evaluation incentives, not byline convention.…
- 1 in 277 PubMed Papers Now Cite Fake References
A Lancet Correspondence auditing 2.5 million PubMed Central papers found fabricated citations rose from 1-in-2,828 papers in 2023 to 1-in-277 in early 2026 — and over 98% of flagged papers have seen n…
- House Hearing Spotlights Grant-Fraud FCA Use
A June 2026 House Science subcommittee hearing examined FCA grant-fraud enforcement, spotlighting undisclosed foreign affiliations as a growing DOJ target.…
- Accounting Researchers Weigh Authorship Norms
A February 2026 study surveyed 375 North American accounting researchers on 44 debatable research and authorship practices, mapping where field norms diverge.…
- Thorsen Extradited on CDC Grant-Fraud Charges
Danish researcher Poul Thorsen was extradited from Germany after 15 years as a fugitive and arraigned on 22 federal wire fraud/money laundering counts; a September 1, 2026 change-of-plea hearing is no…
- AGU’s 2024 Global Co-Authorship Policy
AGU’s 2024 authorship update asks researchers to name local collaborators as co-authors, not just acknowledgments. Here is what changed and why it matters.…
- Wolters Kluwer Retracts 9 China Transplant Papers
Wolters Kluwer retracted nine transplant papers in July 2026 over unresolved organ-sourcing ethics tied to a 2019 scoping review.…
- Faculty vs. Student Views on Authorship Ethics
A 2026 Accountability in Research study tracks faculty-student authorship-ethics views and tests whether training plus policy closes the gap.…
- Dana-Farber’s $15M FCA Settlement Over Image Manipulation
Dana-Farber paid $15M in Dec. 2025 to settle a DOJ False Claims Act suit over manipulated images in NIH-funded papers, and what it means for grant compliance.…
- Walsh Medical Media Demanded EUR499 to Retract a Paper Falsely Attributed to an Impersonated Author
A Walsh Medical Media journal published a commentary under a University at Buffalo researcher’s name without his knowledge, then demanded EUR400, later EUR499, before it would remove the false byline …
- Melbourne Opens Formal Misconduct Probe Into John Hattie
University of Melbourne has opened a formal probe into education researcher John Hattie over alleged plagiarism and fabricated AI-style citations.…
- The Gender Gap in Corresponding and Senior Authorship: What 2025 Studies Show
2025 bibliometric studies show women’s senior- and corresponding-authorship share still lags first-authorship gains, with implications for research policy.…
- Italy’s CNR and the January 2025 Declaration of Rome on Research Integrity
In January 2025, CNR convened Italy’s 1st National Congress on Research Integrity in Rome, producing the Declaration of Rome. CASRAI covers the CNR committee behind it, the Congress, and the national …
- Elsevier Expands Check Integrity Tool to Screen Nearly 2,000 Journals
Elsevier expanded Check Integrity to nearly 2,000 journals in March 2026, flagging unauthorized authorship changes and editorial conflicts of interest.…
- China’s MOST Names 68 Red-Line Misconduct Categories
MOST Order No. 24 lists 68 categories of research misconduct across six actor types, part of China’s push to hold institutions accountable.…
- China’s MOST Orders Universities to Probe Retracted-Paper Misconduct
China’s Ministry of Science and Technology has ordered universities to investigate retracted papers for misconduct and warned of penalties for looking away.…
- Canada’s PRCR Proposes Removing the Statute of Limitations on Misconduct Allegations
Canada’s PRCR ran a Feb 17-Apr 17, 2026 consultation proposing to remove any statute of limitations on research misconduct allegations, alongside new rules on anonymous complaints, post-departure acco…
- Court Upholds ORI’s Misconduct Findings in Frech v. HHS
A D.D.C. court granted summary judgment for HHS on Dec. 12, 2025, upholding ORI’s misconduct findings and 3-year debarment of researcher Ivana Frech.…
- Zurich Clears Aguzzi, Flags 7 Papers for Errors
University of Zurich cleared neuropathologist Adriano Aguzzi of misconduct, but flagged 7 of 36 studies for image errors he must now retract or correct.…
- BuyTheBy Dataset Puts a Price on Paper Mill Authorship
A new dataset, BuyTheBy, quantifies for the first time what paper mills actually charge for authorship: 18,710 ads, prices from roughly $56 to $5,631 for first-author slots, and just 5 of 53 matched p…
- COPE Publishes New Code of Conduct, Replacing the Retired Core Practices
COPE’s new Code of Conduct for members is live, replacing the retired 2024 Core Practices, with a 12-month transition before adherence is mandatory.…
- China’s NHC Discloses 28 Research-Misconduct Cases
China’s National Health Commission disclosed 28 sanctioned misconduct cases spanning data fabrication, paper trading, and guest authorship.…
- UKCORI to Wind Down by 2027; New UK Integrity Body Floated
UKCORI co-lead Miles Padgett told the UK Reproducibility Network conference the committee has no operations planned beyond 2027, and sketched a scenario for a new centralised UK research-integrity bod…
- George Church Withdraws From Nature Methods Byline
Five researchers, including Harvard geneticist George Church, were moved off a Nature Methods byline into acknowledgements amid U.S. scrutiny of China ties.…
- ORI Sanction Against Former Mount Sinai Postdoc Chen-Yeh “George” Ke Prompts Sleuthing and a Science Signaling Retraction
A March 2026 ORI finding against former Mount Sinai postdoc Chen-Yeh “George” Ke — for falsified images in a draft manuscript and NIH progress reports — prompted independent image-forensics sleuthing …
- ORI’s 42 CFR Part 93 Final Rule: What Changed for Research Misconduct in 2026
ORI’s final rule revising 42 CFR Part 93 took effect Jan 1, 2025 and applies to allegations received on or after Jan 1, 2026. Here’s exactly what changed.…
- Retraction Watch Database Surpasses 63,000 Logged Retractions
Retraction Watch’s database has logged over 63,000 retractions. In April 2026 congressional testimony, RW cited a current 0.2% overall retraction rate.…
- COPE Relaunches Paper Mills Working Group in Response to AI-Enabled Misconduct
COPE relaunched its paper mills working group in June 2026, citing AI-exploited coordinated misconduct as the driver, with a companion toolkit to its systematic-manipulation guidelines as the group’s …
- STAT’s Investigation: How Guest-Edited Special Issues Are Driving Journal Retractions
STAT’s April 2026 investigation traces BMJ’s retraction of 7 of 8 papers in a guest-edited Journal of Medical Genetics issue, and the pattern behind it.…
- NIH’s May 2026 Notice: When AI Use Becomes Research Misconduct
NIH’s May 2026 notice explains when AI use in funded research crosses into research misconduct, and what enforcement follows.…
- ORI’s 2026 Case Summaries: A 15-Year Debarment and What the Fernandez Case Shows About Enforcement
The US Office of Research Integrity’s 2026 case summaries include a 15-year debarment of former Rice University professor Ariel Fernandez for fabricating data across 12 published papers — one of ORI’s…
- AI Image-Integrity Screening Goes Mainstream: MDPI and ASM Adopt Proofig, Imagetwin
MDPI’s multi-year Proofig AI deal and ASM’s Imagetwin pilot data show AI image-forensics screening becoming standard in publisher editorial workflows.…
- Fake-author citation cartels: the 2026 chemistry-journal investigation
A Feb. 2026 C&EN investigation found citation cartels inventing fake author identities and misusing APC waivers to sell undetectable citation boosts.…
- ICMJE’s January 2026 Recommendations Update: What Changed
ICMJE updated its Recommendations in January 2026, adding a new standalone Section V on AI use and a new Section III.L.2 on authors’ access to trial data, plus revisions to sponsor-agreement, miscondu…
- From orange-flag to red-flag: paper-mill signal escalation
Suspect-paper triage at scale needs structured signal escalation. A practical model for moving manuscripts from orange-flag screening to red-flag investigation.…
- Cease-and-desist or collaborate? Working with paper mills
The integrity community’s debate on how to engage with paper mills: confrontation, infiltration, or harm reduction. A look at what is actually working.…
- Why scholarly societies are hiring dedicated research-integrity directors
ACM is creating its first director of research integrity role to clear a case backlog, joining Springer Nature and Elsevier in treating misconduct investigation as a dedicated, professionalized functi…
- Paper mills and tortured phrases: the integrity crisis in 2026
Cabanac’s Problematic Paper Screener, retraction wave, citation cartels, COPE flowcharts, and the United2Act initiative: where the publishing-integrity fight stands.…
