Thanks #RetractionWatch for another fascinating rabbit hole!

https://www.thetransmitter.org/retraction/exclusive-springer-nature-retracts-removes-nearly-40-publications-that-trained-neural-networks-on-bonkers-dataset/

"A Kaggle user broached these same concerns in a comment, and #Piosenka responded that he had not violated privacy restrictions because all images were publicly available, adding “how can one be more ethical than to try to foster early detection and treatment of Autism in children. You sir are way off base.” Piosenka did not respond to The Transmitter’s requests for comment by email and phone."

This dude pulled down photographs of kids faces from various websites and applied labels (methods here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zMQgyQvYiYyxx9J5jw3jrLGTS0p19Rep/view?usp=drivesdk ) based on whatever the website said about the kids. No consent, no confirmation, no standardization. Then folks used the images and labels to train neural networks and published the results. You could walk across the ocean of red flags here!

His rationale;

"I contacted numerous organizations associated with autism to try to get assistance in developing a higher
quality dataset but was unsuccessful. Also note that there is a possibility that images in the non_autistic folders may have some percentage of autistic images. This is because you cannot search the internet for 'facial images of non autistic children' so I was forced to just gather facial images of children. Some percentage of these children (probably a small percentage) could have autism."

My dude, could it be that you were "unsuccessful" because the approach you used was "unethical"?

Also that dataset was ingested, with labels, into Google AI. There's no way that didn't happen.

Again; thanks Retraction Watch! In my opinion every scientist should read their reports every day. Morning coffee breakfast reading!

Exclusive: Springer Nature retracts, removes nearly 40 publications that trained neural networks on ‘bonkers’ dataset

The dataset contains images of children’s faces downloaded from websites about autism, which sparked concerns at Springer Nature about consent and reliability.

The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives

Weekend reads: ‘Don’t hate the replicator, hate the game’; Crossref finds 150K incorrect citation links in database; Announcing our Ctrl-Z award – #RetractionWatch
Economist discusses “internationally crowdsourced surveillance system, designed to keep social scientists honest”
ET
By Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi
Mary Childs
Jess Jiang
James Sneed
Emma Peaslee

https://retractionwatch.com/2026/03/14/weekend-reads-replication-games-crossref-incorrect-citation-links-database-announcing-our-ctrl-z-award/

Weekend reads: ‘Don’t hate the replicator, hate the game’; Crossref finds 150K incorrect citation links in database; Announcing our Ctrl-Z award

If your week flew by — we know ours did — catch up here with what you might have missed. The week at Retraction Watch featured: Stolen economics study retracted following Retraction Watch coverage …

Retraction Watch

Scammy research publishers. It is all about the money these days.
I hope people can afford to sue them.

"In a 2024 article in the Journal of Scholarly Publishing, Graham Kendall, the deputy vice chancellor at MILA University in Nilai, Malaysia, detailed possible connections between Walsh Medical Media and the publishing group OMICS. In 2019, OMICS was ordered to pay the U.S. government $50 million in 2019 for “unfair and deceptive practices.” "

https://retractionwatch.com/2026/03/05/publisher-demands-500-from-impersonated-author-to-retract-paper/

#RetractionWatch #Research

Publisher demands $500 from impersonated author to retract paper

Last year, we wrote about a Walsh Medical Media journal that refused to withdraw an author’s paper unless he paid a fee — even though he didn’t write or submit the article. For one reader, some det…

Retraction Watch

If you were as irritated as I was when #RetractionWatch of all outlets uncritically linked to a sensationalist article celebrating Ulrike #Guerot of all people as a martyr - the conspiratorial academic convicted of #plagiarism by an actual court.

Well, then you now have the chance to do better. :)

https://centerforscientificintegrity.org/2026/02/26/announcing-the-retraction-watch-research-accountability-reporting-fellowship/

Announcing the Retraction Watch Research Accountability Reporting Fellowship - The Center for Scientific Integrity

Retraction Watch and The Open Notebook are thrilled to announce a new fellowship program funded by The Center for Scientific Integrity. This six-month program will equip up to six reporters and editors at local newsrooms to report stories of scientific integrity unfolding at research universities or institutions in their areas.  The scientific process is designed […]

The Center for Scientific Integrity
Exclusive: Unrest at Wiley journal whose EIC is cited in more than half of its papers

Timothy Lee (center) of Macau University of Science and Technology was named editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Tourism Research in 2023. On Feb. 18, a researcher in Italy sent a disgr…

Retraction Watch
"Zitiert und nicht bemerkt? So hilft Retraction Watch, zurückgezogene Artikel zu finden" erkärt @flohnsen im Blog der @tub:
https://www.tub.tuhh.de/blog/2026/02/23/retraction-watch-zurueckgezogene-artikel/
#RetractionWatch
Zitiert und nicht bemerkt? So hilft Retraction Watch, zurückgezogene Artikel zu finden - Universitätsbibliothek TU Hamburg

Retraction Watch unterstützt dabei, zurückgezogene wissenschaftliche Artikel zu erkennen. In diesem Beitrag stellen wir den Service vor.

Universitätsbibliothek TU Hamburg

📄🔍 Zurückgezogene Artikel zitieren, ohne es zu merken?

Retractions rechtzeitig zu erkennen ist gar nicht so einfach. Allein 2023 wurden weltweit mehr als 10.000 wissenschaftliche Artikel zurückgezogen. Mit Retraction Watch und dem Zotero-Plugin behält man den Überblick und erkennt Retractions direkt in der eigenen Literaturverwaltung.

#RetractionWatch #Retractions #Zotero #GuteWissenschaftlichePraxis #OpenScience #Openness

https://www.tub.tuhh.de/blog/2026/02/23/retraction-watch-zurueckgezogene-artikel/

Zitiert und nicht bemerkt? So hilft Retraction Watch, zurückgezogene Artikel zu finden - Universitätsbibliothek TU Hamburg

Retraction Watch unterstützt dabei, zurückgezogene wissenschaftliche Artikel zu erkennen. In diesem Beitrag stellen wir den Service vor.

Universitätsbibliothek TU Hamburg

Der Beitrag von Konstantin Schönfelder im ZEVEDI-Verantwortungsblog zeigt, warum das unter generativer KI eine neue Dringlichkeit bekommt: Ungekennzeichnete KI-Nutzung, Textartefakte wie „Regenerate Response“, erfundene Literaturangaben und ein Publikationsbetrieb, der solche Dinge teils offenbar durchwinkt.

Mehr zum ZEVEDI-Verantwortungsblog ⬇️
https://zevedi.de/verantwortungsblog/

#ZEVEDI #VBlog #RetractionWatch #Wissenschaft #Publikationswesen

Verantwortungsblog – Zentrum verantwortungsbewusste Digitalisierung

Retractación en @Nature; ¿sanciones para las universidades con mayor retractación? Análisis de revistas PISS #RetractionWatch Profesor suspendido después de que una universidad japonesa encontrara resultados sospechosos en un artículo sobre sushi

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ooo5gjxccwb7ypsnifbgffn4/post/3mcowg2k7i3h2
Exclusiva: En un cambio de postura, el exvicecanciller de Pakistán, exonerado por #plagio, enfrenta sanciones – #RetractionWatch retractionwatch.com/2025/12/15/e...

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ooo5gjxccwb7ypsnifbgffn4/post/3ma46ucztplh2


Exclusive: In reversal, former...