#1: Samuel Vigne Update
Last month I wrote a story about Brian Lucey getting 13 papers retracted:
My article hit #1 on Hacker News:
Today’s update involves professor Samuel Vigne, Lucey’s protégé, and former PhD student, who has now had yet another paper retracted:
The stated reason for this new retraction is fraudulent citations:
The journal, with guidance from an impartial field expert acting in the role of an independent Publishing Ethics Advisor, found that 22 citations were added to this paper at the article revision stage without justification to the handling editor. Additional 8 citations were added to this paper at author proof stage without the approval of the Editor. The new citations were inserted generically without being thoughtfully integrated into the paper’s narrative, thus lacking direct relevance to the specific points being made. The new citations mainly benefit the authors Muhammad A. Naeem and Sitara Karim.
#2: MIT Fraud Update
Another popular article I wrote was about a PhD student at MIT named Aidan Toner-Rodgers, who was kicked out of school for fabulously fabricating data.
Another paper by Aidan Toner-Rogers (MIT) was just retracted a few days ago, this time in the top journal in the world for Development Economics:
The stated reason for this new retraction is because his co-author requested it:
This article has been retracted at the request of the corresponding author (FLF).
The corresponding author has indicated that key results in the paper cannot be independently verified and that the reliability of the underlying analyses cannot be confirmed. In light of these concerns, the Editors have concluded that the findings cannot be relied upon and have therefore retracted the article. This retraction is issued to maintain the integrity of the scientific record.
#3: Florian Ederer Update
Long-time readers will remember that I gave a seminar at Stanford University in 2023 about a hacked economics forum:
Here we are 3 years later, and the resulting paper from the hacked data is still not published, stuck in R&R limbo. Last week, I asked the authors for an update:
I am guessing it is held up due to legal issues.
#4: Faculty Leaks
This week I came across Faculty Leaks, an “anonymous dispatch from inside higher education”. It’s a brand-new account—just launched this week—and they’ve already published their first 2 pieces. I’m always glad to support new writers, and this one looks promising. If you’re interested in academia, this Substack is worth checking out and subscribing to.
#5: Plagiarized Poison Ivy
