no soylents were surprised
Paper blaming COVID-19 on 5G technology withdrawn:
A paper which argued that 5G cellphone technology could lead to infection with the novel coronavirus has been retracted, but not before scientific sleuth Elisabeth Bik wondered whether it was the "worst paper of 2020."
The article, "5G Technology and induction of coronavirus in skin cells," came from a group from Italy, the United States and Russia, and appeared in theJournal of Biological Regulators and Homeostatic Agents. The journal is published by Biolife, which asserts that it's peer reviewed but has not responded to a request for comment.
The abstract is now marked "WITHDRAWN" on PubMed and the paper has disappeared from the journal's website. The abstract has been preserved here.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 28 2020, @01:36AM (2 children)
If I look up an author's publications, it should include the good and the bad.
Withdrawal eliminates half of this story and prevents a clear debunking to kill the rumors.
If you publish something with errors, and review finds them, then you might publish an updated version, but the original should still be around with notes about the errors.
Science is about finding how stuff actually works and sometimes the errors and seeing things that didn't work out are useful in that quest.
Scientific journals are having problems with bogus papers. They should want to out a few to show that they are doing something about it. This is the opposite.
(Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Tuesday July 28 2020, @06:38AM (1 child)
What you describe is the normal scientific process. The updates are called erratums and are used used all the time to point out errors in accepted publications. Retractions are about honest mistakes, when you realize that your hypothesis is indeed dead wrong and your paper just has no merit any more. Or it is fraudulent work when retraction is enforced (through the usual peer-pressure means). Arguably, the publication landscape is highly polluted already and 99% of paper (mine included) would not need to be published because they do not have scientific merit. To put in in laymen's terms: we should treat scientific papers like the human population, every single one less, is good.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Kell on Tuesday July 28 2020, @07:19AM
Alas, as a fellow academic I can say that the pressure to publish even subpar work is extreme. "Publish or perish" is not said in jest. If you are not pumping out at least two journal papers at my university, then you are seen as under-performing and likely to feel the axe the next time cuts come around.
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.