Weekend reads: Second gene editing death in China reported; Jason Arday’s resignation from Cambridge; Retraction Watch’s sweet 16

Key Points:

• Retraction Watch celebrated its 16th anniversary and highlighted significant issues including retractions of high-profile anesthesiologists for data and image problems, and introduced the inaugural Ctrl-Z Award recognizing courage in retracting published work.
• Controversies included a composer publishing a theoretical physics paper without credentials, RFK Jr. questioning a publisher over a vaccine paper, and a decade-long fraud by a market survey firm impacting researchers.
• Clarivate lifted a hold on the mega-journal Heliyon after an internal audit that resulted in over 650 retractions, while Retraction Watch’s database now tracks over 66,000 retractions, including 650 COVID-19-related cases.
• International developments featured a second death in a gene therapy trial in China, multiple plagiarism-related retractions in Bangladesh, and ongoing investigations into research misconduct including fabricated citations and AI-related breaches.
• Broader discussions covered challenges in scholarly publishing such as the impact of AI on research integrity, the rise of preprints, issues with review mills, and calls for improved trust systems and ethical standards in scientific communication.