SAN DIEGO-Three U.S. journals still have not published retractions or clarifications on nine articles by Robert A. Slutsky that 18 months ago were declared fraudulent or questionable.
One small journal is waiting for its publishing house to obtain permission from Slutsky. A second publication has withdrawn only research retracted by Slutsky himself. The third journal has printed no corrections because neither Slutsky nor his co-authors have requested retractions. All said they feared litigation by offended co-authors.
At least 11 scientific journals have printed retractions for most of the 48 questioned and 12 fraudulent articles Slutsky wrote. And many of the journals that published his valid research have reaffirmed the integrity of those articles.
In 1984 the University of California-San Diego concluded that Slutsky, a radiology trainee, had produced 60 research papers in which the data were fraudulent or questionable. The work involved dozens of colleagues, many of whom had been...