Tenth retraction appears for Jesús Lemus, this one in PLOS ONE

Just two days ago, we covered the ninth retraction for Jesús Lemus, “the veterinary researcher whose work colleagues have had trouble verifying, including being unable to confirm the identity of one of his co-authors.” And already another of his retractions has appeared in one of our daily alerts.

This one appears in PLOS ONE, for “Infectious Offspring: How Birds Acquire and Transmit an Avian Polyomavirus in the Wild:”

“Ephemeral nature” of samples — and co-author — leads to ninth Jesús Lemus retraction

Jesús Lemus — the veterinary researcher whose work colleagues have had trouble verifying, including being unable to confirm the identity of one of his co-authors — has notched his ninth retraction.

It’s a clear and comprehensive notice, from the Journal of Applied Ecology, despite the bizarre nature of the case:

Jesús Lemus notches his eighth retraction

The carcasses are piling up.

Jesús A. Lemus now has eight retractions. Here’s the notice for the most recent:

Not in my journal: Two editors take stock of misconduct in their fields — and don’t find much

Today brings two journal editorials about misconduct and retractions. They take, if we may, a bit of an optimistic and perhaps even blindered approach.

In an editorial titled “Scientific misconduct occurs, but is rare,” Boston University’s Richard Primack, editor of Biological Conservation, highlights a Corrigendum of a paper by Jesus Angel Lemus, the veterinary researcher who has retracted seven papers:

Retraction seven appears for Jesús Lemus

The retractions keep coming for Jesús A. Lemus. Here’s the notice for retraction seven, in Molecular Ecology:

Retraction six appears for Jesús Angel Lemus

Jesús A. Lemus, he of the likely ghost author and questionable data, has earned his sixth retraction, this one in Biology Letters.

Here’s the notice for “Stress associated with group living in a long-lived bird:”

“Additionally, the authors were unable to identify” co-author: Another retraction for Lemus

We’ve been following the case of Jesús A. Lemus, the Spanish veterinary researcher with five retractions and two expressions of concern under his belt so far for suspected data fabrication and including a fake author on his papers.

Yes, a fake author. When this story first broke, El Pais called Javier Grande a ” ghost with a good academic background with at least six scientific publications in international journals.”

Grande’s — and Lemus’s — publication count declined by one more yesterday, as Environmental Microbiology retracted a 2007 paper:

Not immune: Jesús A. Lemus earns another Expression of Concern

Jesús A. Lemus, the Spanish researcher whose work has left a lot of people questioning his data, has another Expression of Concern for his resume.

Here’s the notice, from Functional Ecology:

A pair of expressions of concern in PLOS ONE over vet science papers

PLoS ONE has issued two Expressions of Concern on unrelated studies, each of which offers plenty to be concerned about — and not just about the research itself.

One is a casualty of our old friend,  Jesús Lemus, the Spanish veterinary scientist accused of fabricating his data.

The article, titled “The PHA-Skin Test Reflects Acquired T-Cell Mediated Immunocompetence in Birds,” was published in September 2008 and cited 61 times, according to Google Scholar.

Back in April, the publisher posted this comment to the paper:

Lemus, Stapel each rack up another retraction

The retraction counts keep mounting for two Retraction Watch frequent flyers.

First, Diederik Stapel’s 26th retraction, according to our count. Psychologist Stapel admitted to making up data in dozens of studies, and is also facing a criminal inquiry for misuse of funds.

Here’s the notice: