Springer Nature Retracts Removes Nearly 40 Publications

Scientific publisher Springer Nature has begun to retract dozens of papers that relied on a dataset fraught with ethical and reliability concerns, The Transmitter has learned. Five papers have been retracted since 16 November, and 33 more retractions are planned, says Tim Kersjes, Springer Nature’s head of research integrity, resolutions. The papers attempted to train neural networks to distinguish between autistic and non-autistic children in a dataset containing photos of children’s faces. Retired engineer Gerald Piosenka created the dataset in 2019 by downloading photos of children from “websites devoted to the subject of autism,” according to a description of the dataset’s methods, and uploaded it to... The dataset contains more than 2,900 photos of children’s faces, half of which are labeled as autistic and the other half as not autistic. After learning about a paper that cites the dataset, “I went and downloaded the dataset, and I was completely horrified,” says Dorothy Bishop, emeritus professor of developmental neuropsychology at the University of Oxford.

“When I saw how it was created, I just thought, ‘This is absolute bonkers.’” Without identifying each child in the dataset, there is no way to confirm that any of them do or do not have autism, Bishop says. 🙅♂️ Springer Nature retracts, removes nearly 40 publications ｢ The papers attempted to train neural networks to distinguish between autistic and non-autistic children in a dataset containing photos of children’s faces. Retired engineer Gerald Piosenka created the dataset in 2019 by downloading photos of children from “websites devoted to the subject of autism,” according to a description of the dataset’s methods, and uploaded it to... Optical and Quantum Electronics, a Springer Nature journal, has retracted more than 200 papers since the start of September, and continues issuing retraction notices en masse. According to the notices, which have similar wording, the retractions come after the publisher identified problems with the articles including compromised peer review, inappropriate or irrelevant references, and nonsensical phrases, suggesting blind use of...

“These investigations are based on intelligence from past work alongside whistleblower information,” Chris Graf, director of research integrity at Springer Nature in Oxford, UK, told Retraction Watch. But Graf declined to share the specifics of the inquiry: “We need to keep details of these investigations confidential to ensure that we do not inform the efforts of individuals who may engage in... Guillaume Cabanac, a computer scientist at the University of Toulouse, France, first highlighted issues with the journal in a February post on X. Cabanac has created software that spots odd language in academic papers he dubbed “tortured phrases,” which seem to be the result of attempts to circumvent plagiarism checks. His Problematic Paper Screener had flagged nearly 50 articles in Optical and Quantum Electronics riddled with tortured phrases, mostly published in 2023. “I suspect papermill submissions + compromised peer review,” he wrote on X at the time, referring to shady services that sell authorship slots and citations on papers.

A journal has retracted a 2025 paper on social media and anxiety after a reader raised questions about the data – and thanks to the mentorship of a sleuth or two. The article appeared in 2023 in BMC Psychology, a Springer Nature title. The sole author was Li Sun, whose affiliation is listed as the School of Marxism at Zhoukou Vocational and Technical College, in China. According to the abstract of the paper, the research explored “the impact of mindfulness-based mobile apps on university students’ anxiety, loneliness, and well-being.” Those apps were “Headspace, Calm, and Insight Timer” which “offer a... Springer Nature is retracting a book on machine learning that had multiple references to works that do not exist, Retraction Watch has learned. The move comes two weeks after we reported on the book’s fake references.

Soft Computing, a Springer Nature title, has retracted at least 335 papers this year, many from issues with guest editors. The mass retractions began in July, with the latest appearing November 4. The retraction notes contain identical language to notices in Environmental Science and Pollution Research and Optical and Quantum Electronics, which have also been retracting articles en masse this year: An investigation by the publisher found a number of articles, including this one, with a number of concerns, including but not limited to compromised editorial handling and peer review process, inappropriate or irrelevant references... Based on the investigation’s findings the publisher no longer has confidence in the results and conclusions of this article. Sleuths using the Problematic Paper Screener have flagged more than 700 articles in the journal that cite retracted or otherwise problematic papers or contain tortured phrases, nonstandard language that hints at the use of...

The publisher’s decision to withdraw the articles by Juan Manuel Corchado is the biggest scandal to hit Spanish scientists Springer Nature, one of the world’s leading scientific publishers, has abruptly retracted 75 scientific papers authored by Juan Manuel Corchado, the rector of the University of Salamanca, along with his collaborators. The multinational company initiated an investigation in May after EL PAÍS revealed internal messages indicating that Corchado had requested his employees add citations to his work in their papers to create the illusion that... The scale of these retractions — unprecedented in Spain — makes Corchado’s case the largest known scandal among Spanish scientists. Chris Graf, director of scientific integrity at Springer Nature, says that the retraction of the 75 studies is underway. “Our investigations identified various concerns, including, but not limited to, compromised editorial handling, inappropriate or unusual citation behavior, and undisclosed competing interests,” says Graf.

Corchado’s group organized numerous conferences and utilized the related papers — published by Springer Nature — to artificially inflate the number of citations to the rector, even when those references were irrelevant to the... This newspaper reported in May that, across just 75 publications, Corchado’s collaborators cited him nearly 1,700 times, a tactic that propelled him into international rankings as one of the most cited scientists in his... Some studies have already been retracted, such as a paper on a technology to classify odors, authored by Corchado which includes 10 citations to his own work, as well as another paper by his... Scientific publisher Springer Nature has begun to retract dozens of papers that relied on a dataset fraught with ethical and reliability concerns, The Transmitter has learned. Five papers have been retracted since 16 November, and 33 more retractions are planned, says Tim Kersjes, Springer Nature’s head of research integrity, resolutions. The papers attempted to train neural networks to distinguish between autistic and non-autistic children in a dataset containing photos of children’s faces.

Retired engineer Gerald Piosenka created the dataset in 2019 by downloading photos of children from “websites devoted to the subject of autism,” according to a description of the dataset’s methods, and uploaded it to... The dataset contains more than 2,900 photos of children’s faces, half of which are labeled as autistic and the other half as not autistic. 8 DECEMBER 2025 Scientific publisher Springer Nature has begun to retract dozens of papers that relied on a dataset fraught with ethical and reliability concerns, The Transmitter has learned. Five papers have been retracted since 16 November, and 33 more retractions are planned, says Tim Kersjes, Springer Nature’s head of research integrity, resolutions. The papers attempted to train neural networks to distinguish between autistic and non-autistic children in a dataset containing photos of children’s faces. Retired engineer Gerald Piosenka created the dataset in 2019 by downloading photos of children from “websites devoted to the subject of autism,” according to a description of the dataset’s methods, and uploaded it to...

The dataset contains more than 2,900 photos of children’s faces, half of which are labeled as autistic and the other half as not autistic. After learning about a paper that cites the dataset, “I went and downloaded the dataset, and I was completely horrified,” says Dorothy Bishop, emeritus professor of developmental neuropsychology at the University of Oxford. “When I saw how it was created, I just thought, ‘This is absolute bonkers.’” Snip https://www.thetransmitter.org/retraction/exclusive-springer-nature-retracts-removes-nearly-40-publications-that-trained-neural-networks-on-bonkers-dataset/

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