WIKIMEDIA, MAGNUS MANSKE
Of a sampling of 120 papers from three cancer-related journals, around 25 percent contained what appeared to be duplicated images, according to an analysis from Oslo University Hospital’s Morten Oksvold. At least half of these images were duplicates from different experiments, and the most common problem was the duplication of loading controls in Western blots.
Oksvold contacted both the authors of the papers in question and the respective journal editors in October 2014, yet by May 2015, “no editorial replies have been received so far,” he wrote in his report, published in Science and Engineering Ethics last week (June 12).
“This is just indefensible,” according to Discover’s Neuroskeptic. “Oksvold’s allegations deserve to be taken seriously.”
Oksvold had collected 40 papers continuously as they were published ...