Monday, February 17, 2014

Tip of the Iceberg: More Organic Letters Corrections

(Thanks to BRSM for the heads up!)
(UpdateSee here for Derek's post and thoughts)

Looks like another author just felt the heat of the Data Analyst's gaze. Hot on the heels of the Fukuyama corrections, we have a slate of scrubbed-up 1H spectra from the Nakada group (Waseda University).*

Today's corrections in Org. Lett. ASAP (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) all read rather similarly:
"The 1H NMR spectrum for compound x . . .was found to have been edited to remove solvents and impurities"
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Syntheses affected include a Taxol fragment, (+)-Colletoic Acid, and Erinacine B. The authors claim in each correction that the edits "did not affect any of the conclusions" and that "Yield was found to be correct." Years affected: 2006-2013.

Two questions immediately spring to mind:

1. Why have all the corrections exposed thus far been from one country?
2. How far back will we go? Org Lett.'s been around for 15 years...will we soon get corrections like it's 1999?

*Interestingly, Prof. Nakada's group page seems to be suddenly unavailable. Huh.

1 comment:

  1. One of the weird things about these instances is that it was not like there was money riding on perfect spectra (at least not from what I can tell). Is a scientist really going to be so much better off because their spectra are pristine? What kind of pressure are these people under to resort to this behavior?

    I think it is good that this is occurring, it may get rid of whatever that pressure is and convince institutions to run labs that value integrity and quality over quantity of publications.

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