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Data re-use correction at Nature Materials: whodunit? »

Data re-use warrants correction at Nature Materials

March 10, 2013 by ferniglab


A number of events are worthy of a post, but the most urgent to bring to my readers’ attention is a development at Nature Materials. They have issued a correction to the 2008 paper by Francesco Stellacci, Nature Materials 7, 588 – 595 (2008). Thanks to Pep (despite stating he would no longer comment on this blog) for pointing this out in a comment on my blog entitled “Responses-to-evidence-of-self-plagiarism“. I have raised the issue of data re-use multiple times (no pun intended!) including these posts:

Responses-to-evidence-of-self-plagiarism
Well over the line: an update
Well-over-the-line-when-does-minor-become-major
Over-the-line

For those who don’t feel like clicking through the links, the text of the correction at Nature Materials is:
” * In the version of this Article originally published, in the caption for Fig. 1 the following statement should have been included “Right-hand STM image in panel a reproduced with permission from ref. 30, © 2008 RSC.” This error has been corrected in the PDF and HTML versions of the Article.”

Self-plagiarism is perhaps not the best term: data re-use may be a better descriptor, hence the change of tack in my title. I still wonder what the referees’ reaction to a fully attributed figure might have been? In my limited experience, if a figure in the main body of a manuscript is attributed correctly to a previous paper, reviewers tend to be pretty hard and one receives comments along these lines: “don’t you have another image, and if not, why not”. Which is reasonable, since one will have multiple replicates, both technical and on different preparations.

Anyway, this is just idle speculation from someone who is meant to be painting a bedroom – displacement activity or procrastination, depending on your viewpoint.

I am sure with such positive development from NPG that Philip Moriarty will receive very soon the raw data he has repeatedly requested from Francesco Stellacci.

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Posted in Research integrity, Science process, Scientific progress | Tagged imaging, Nanoparticle, Nanotechnology, Research integrity, Science progress | 10 Comments

10 Responses

  1. on March 10, 2013 at 7:57 pm Raphaël Lévy

    Reblogged this on Rapha-z-lab and commented:
    An important development: the first correction in the series of stripy papers; read on at Dave’s blog


  2. on March 22, 2013 at 9:59 pm Five cases of data re-use | Rapha-z-lab

    […] The issues of data re-use/self-plagiarism has already been discussed here and in a number of posts at David Fernig’s blog. […]


  3. on March 25, 2013 at 6:46 pm Data re-use warrants correction at PNAS: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil | Ferniglab's Blog

    […] from this correction. Unlike the previous correction in Nature Materials, which I posted on (here and here), the correction at PNAS involves new data being […]


  4. on April 25, 2013 at 6:13 pm #Realtimechem Carnival Round up: Day 3 | The Organic Solution

    […] Ferniglab’s Blog shares a more serious point of view with a post on “Data re-use warrants correction at […]


  5. on May 18, 2013 at 2:13 pm Latest score: EPFL 1- MIT 0 | Ferniglab's Blog

    […] including one at PNAS where data were re-used to describe a completely different experiment (here and […]


  6. on June 22, 2013 at 4:40 pm Raccomandata, tragi-comica – Ocasapiens - Blog - Repubblica.it

    […] azienda a Trento creata nel 2006  (tutto fermo dal 2010?). Nel frattempo, la controversia sulle sue particelle d’oro a (presunte) strisce per molecole terapeutiche continua dal […]


  7. on November 3, 2013 at 2:52 pm Well over the line: an update | Le Blog

    […] The discussions on what constitutes plagiarism continue. One side, which I belong to, believes simply that the rules we establish for our students are the same rules we should be using in our professional life. In the specific context of the publications that claim evidence for ligands self-organising into stripes on the surface of nanoparticles, I have posted on this issue previously, due to the re-use of unattributed data in five of the papers from the Stellacci lab (here). I used the University of Liverpool rules on plagiarism and collusion as the basis of my argument, and then made the broad claim that the same rules apply across all universities. Since the papers in which data are re-used were published whilst the group were at MIT, it is of interest to look specifically at the rules at that Institution. These are described in an excellent document entitled “Academic Integrity at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: A Handbook for Students“. To quote from page 6 of this document “If you use charts, graphs, data sets, or numerical information obtained from another person or from published material, you must also cite the source.”. Of course, if one is publishing, then there is also the legal issue of copyright and formal agreement has to be obtained from the publisher for the reproduction of the original data. This seems pretty clear cut to me and it will be of interest to see what will be the response from the relevant institutions considering this matter. It is perhaps naive, but it would seem reasonable to expect that if there is no response, then a student violating these rules could simply hire a lawyer and get their full marks. This would be a bad day for higher education. Update 3 November 2013 the re-used figures have been the subject of corrections, see here and here. […]


  8. on November 3, 2013 at 2:56 pm Well over the line: when does “minor” become “major”? | Le Blog

    […] 3 November 2013 Cases 1 and 5 have been subject to a correction in the relevant […]


  9. on February 6, 2014 at 11:04 pm A birthday question | Ferniglab Blog

    […] data re-use resulted in corrections, albeit after a degree of pressure was placed on editors (see here and […]


  10. on January 29, 2015 at 4:52 pm Identity theft: a new low in the stripy nanoparticles controversy | Rapha-z-lab

    […] on the re-use of figures in different articles. This eventually led to two corrections, one at Nature Materials and one at PNAS.  An EPFL investigation was triggered, opened, and, eventually, following the […]



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  • Places of interest

    The one and only PhD comics, the guide to being a graduate and to mentoring.

    Improbable Research and the Ig Nobels

    Retraction Watch provides updates on retractions of articles.

    Office for Research Integrity, their video should be compulsory for all.

    Centre for Alternative Technology

    Lateral Science, has some quite stunning information - well worth a browse.

    Fascinating places that have been closed by lawyers

    Science Fraud, shut down due to legal threats on Jan 3 2013. and Abnormal Science

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