Two More Corrections for Criticized Researchers

A university investigation has so far found no wrongdoing by the principal investigator.

kerry grens
| 2 min read

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WIKIPEDIA, KILBADA research group led by Yinsheng Wan at Providence College published corrections to two Journal of Cellular Physiology papers in recent months. Already, the team has one retraction and has corrected at least two other papers. PubPeer commenters have raised concerns about two dozen papers published by one of Wan’s coauthors, Cong Cao, who is now based at the Soochow University Institute of Neuroscience in China.

“We have been looking into the matter,” Steven Maurano, the associate vice president for public affairs, community, and government relations at Providence College, told The Scientist in an email. “At this point, we have not found any improprieties on the part of Dr. Wan or any evidence that he acted inappropriately.”

The errata, which will appear in the January issue of the Journal of Cellular Physiology, concern two 2007 papers on UV damage to human cells. In both cases, there were errors with figure panels; the researchers posted updated images in the correction notices. It appears that some of the same panels that PubPeer commenters alleged were duplicated from other figures were replaced with new ones in the updated figures.

The corrections do not mention ...

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  • kerry grens

    Kerry Grens

    Kerry served as The Scientist’s news director until 2021. Before joining The Scientist in 2013, she was a stringer for Reuters Health, the senior health and science reporter at WHYY in Philadelphia, and the health and science reporter at New Hampshire Public Radio. Kerry got her start in journalism as a AAAS Mass Media fellow at KUNC in Colorado. She has a master’s in biological sciences from Stanford University and a biology degree from Loyola University Chicago.

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