(Thanks to Phil Score for pointing out the typos which have been fixed)
A few days ago the paper in Nature “Systemic signals regulate ageing and rejuvenation of blood stem cell niches” by Shane R. Mayack, Jennifer L. Shadrach, Francis S. Kim & Amy J. Wagers was retracted at the request of 3 of the authors. Then the Journal Blood issued a Notice of Concern regarding a second paper with Shane Mayack as the lead author and published with Amy Wagers.
In both of these cases, Shane Mayack who was the post-doctoral fellow at the Joslin Diabetes Center of Harvard Medical School was the lead author and the implication was that they could be something untoward with her work.
Now Retraction Watch reports that a Scientist raised serious questions about 2008 Cell study by Amy Wagers. The questions were of a scientific and technical nature and in themselves carry no implications of impropriety.
Shane Mayack was not involved with this paper but since Amy Wagers led the team at the Joslin Diabetes Center, the question that arises is one of leadership and of the environment within which research is carried out. As I have posted earlier this atmosphere and the pressure of publication for the researchers may be leading to errors of judgement and misconduct. Professors and leaders of scientific teams cannot, I think, abdicate their responsibility for the environment in which their teams work especially where their names are included as co-authors of the resulting publications. The senior author on any published paper must be the first quality gate to be passed and must provide the final assurance of the integrity of the work being reported.
The k2p blog 