Immunologist calls on university to disclose details of misconduct claims

An immunologist accused last year by the National University of Singapore (NUS) of “serious scientific misconduct” relating to 21 research papers says he refutes the accusations, and is calling on the university to make public its report into the matter.  Read more

Initiative gets $1.3 million to verify findings of 50 high-profile cancer papers

One of the major concerns in biomedical research today is that many basic findings cannot be easily replicated by other labs. Might the literature be stuffed with flukes and unrepeatable results, not sufficiently checked out before publication, and rarely repeated by other labs? Such doubts have increased in the past year, especially after scientists at Amgen and Bayer reported that they had been unable to reproduce the vast majority of ‘landmark’ papers describing promising approaches to treat disease.  Read more

European Research Council funds arXiv — a taste of changes to come

European Research Council funds arXiv — a taste of changes to come

The European Research Council (ERC) announced today that it has joined the list of more than 170 institutions to financially support arXiv, the major online repository for pre-print papers operated by Cornell University Library in Ithaca, New York.  Read more

European Parliament votes to limit crop-based biofuels

The European Union Parliament voted today to limit Europe’s use of biofuels based on crops such as palm oil and soya beans, years after scientists pointed out that making fuel from food crops can do more harm than good to the environment.  Read more

Dutch psychology fraudster avoids trial

Disgraced Dutch social psychologist Diederik Stapel, who in 2011 was found to have fabricated data in at least 30 published papers, will not face trial for misuse of public research funds. Instead, in a pre-trial settlement, Stapel has agreed to 120 hours community service, according to a statement (in Dutch) from the Netherlands’ public prosecutor’s office.  Read more