‘After months of investigation that identified networks of reviewers and editors manipulating the peer review process, Hindawi plans to retract 511 papers across 16 journals, Retraction Watch has learned.
The retractions, which the publisher and its parent company, Wiley, will announce tomorrow in a blog post, will be issued in the next month, and more may come as its investigation continues. They are not yet making the list available.
Hindawi’s research integrity team found several signs of manipulated peer reviews for the affected papers, including reviews that contained duplicated text, a few individuals who did a lot of reviews, reviewers who turned in their reviews extremely quickly, and misuse of databases that publishers use to vet potential reviewers.
Richard Bennett, vice president of researcher and publishing services for Hindawi, told us that the publisher suspects “coordinated peer review rings” consisting of reviewers and editors working together to advance manuscripts through to publication. Some of the manuscripts appeared to come from paper mills, he said.
We asked what prompted the investigation. Bennett told us:
In April 2022, Hindawi’s Research Integrity team led an initial investigation into a single Special Issue (SI) after a Chief Editor raised concerns about some of the papers published in it. The team decided to investigate the content of the journal further. Through this investigation, the team highlighted a pattern of irregular and concerning reviewer activity and identified potential ‘bad actors’ that were present across many of these publications.
These concerns prompted the Publishing Insights and Research Integrity teams, enabled by recently enhanced analytic capabilities and newly developed dashboards providing views across all reviewer activity, to conduct a wider investigation to determine whether these same bad actors were involved in peer review manipulation elsewhere in the Hindawi portfolio.
Following the discovery that these bad actors were present in other journals, the Hindawi leadership team put in place a cross-functional working team combining the manual and data-driven investigation which resulted in the identification of further published articles.
In early August, Hindawi expanded the investigation under a combined investigation team comprising Research Integrity experts, data and analytics experts, publishing and operational teams, and legal counsel from both Wiley and Hindawi. This team evaluated in depth review activity across all potentially impacted articles and manuscripts. This resulted in a list of ‘compromised’ reviewers and editors in addition to the bad actors already discovered, identification of networks that exist between them, patterns of review activity, and insight into published articles and manuscripts at each stage in the review process that we could initially label as ‘compromised’. On September 6, the combined investigation team began assessing published articles which led to the initial recommendation to retract 511 articles that are compromised based on reviewer activity alone. We expect ongoing investigations to result in further retractions.’
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Murder Suspect Mistakenly Released in NYC
A murder suspect has been wrongfully released from a New York City prison. He was still awaiting trial.
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90,000 Ballots in Largest Nevada County Sent to Wrong Addresses, Bounced Back: Report
More than 90,000 ballots mailed to registered voters in Nevada’s largest county were returned undeliverable, according to an analysis of the election data by a conservative legal group. Clark County, which includes the Las Vegas metro area, made the extraordinary move to mail ballots to all the nearly 1.3 million active voters in the county […]
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The Progressive Democratic Steamroller
The $1.9 trillion spending bill is only a taste of what’s coming.
Hong Kong’s Illusionist
Financial Secretary Paul Chan invokes a system that no longer exists.
Thousands of Orthodox Jews participated in a COVID-19 study last year. The first results are in.
(JTA) — One year after COVID-19 first walloped Jewish communities in the United States, a scientific study has confirmed something that many in the communities have long believed: gatherings during the week of Purim served as superspreader events.
A paper published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open, a peer-review journal that is open to the public, concludes that the coronavirus was spreading widely in Orthodox communities across the country last spring around that Jewish holiday — before public health warnings were given about the dangers of large assemblies.
The paper was peer-reviewed, meaning that its conclusions have been scrutinized and accepted through a rigorous process. Now its authors — four Orthodox Jewish physicians who engineered a study of thousands of blood samples from Orthodox Jews who contracted COVID-19 spanning five states — say their paper has lessons as public health officials steer Americans through the pandemic’s next phase.
“There should be specific recommendations for each religious and ethnic community,” said Dr. Israel Zyskind, a pediatrician in Brooklyn and one of the authors. “They should be culturally sensitive, which is not something we’ve seen with the pandemic, especially early on.”
The post Thousands of Orthodox Jews participated in a COVID-19 study last year. The first results are in. appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Wisconsin state Senator wants Green Bay mayor to resign over handling of November election
The demand for the Green Bay Mayor’s resignation comes after renewed investigations over the November 2020 election.
Alaska becomes first state to allow COVID-19 vaccination residents 16 and older
Only the Pfizer vaccine is FDA approved for those 16 and older.
Senate confirms Merrick Garland as Biden’s Attorney General
Garland was confirmed in a 70-30 vote.
Texas Lifts State Mask Mandate Among Other Restrictions as Pandemic Sees Downward Trend
Texas on Wednesday lifted its statewide mask mandate enacted in mid-2020 while also loosening several other restrictions on businesses meant to control the spread of the CCP virus. Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, announced last week in an executive order (pdf) the State of Texas is working towards removing restrictions on businesses and have them […]
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Criticizing Public Figures, Including Influential Journalists, is Not Harassment or Abuse
The most powerful and influential newspaper in the U.S., arguably the west, is The New York Times. Journalists who write for it, especially those whose work is featured on its front page or in its op-ed section, wield immense power to shape public discourse, influence thought, set the political agenda for the planet’s most powerful nation, expose injustices, or ruin the lives of public figures and private citizens alike. That is an enormous amount of power in the hands of one media institution and its employees. That’s why it calls itself the Paper of Record.
One of the Paper of Record’s star reporters, Taylor Lorenz, has been much discussed of late. That is so for three reasons. The first is that the thirty-six-year-old tech and culture reporter has helped innovate a new kind of reportorial beat that seems to have a couple of purposes. She publishes articles exploring in great detail the online culture of teenagers and very young adults, which, as a father of two young Tik-Tok-using children, I have found occasionally and mildly interesting. She also seeks to catch famous and non-famous people alike using bad words or being in close digital proximity to bad people so that she can alert the rest of the world to these important findings. It is natural that journalists who pioneer a new form of reporting this way are going to be discussed.
The second reason Lorenz is the topic of recent discussion is that she has been repeatedly caught fabricating claims about influential people, and attempting to ruin the reputations and lives of decidedly non-famous people. In the last six weeks alone, she twice publicly lied about Netscape founder Marc Andreessen: once claiming he used the word “retarded” in a Clubhouse room in which she was lurking (he had not) and then accusing him of plotting with a white nationalist in a different Clubhouse room to attack her (he, in fact, had said nothing).
She also often uses her large, powerful public platform to malign private citizens without any power or public standing by accusing them of harboring bad beliefs and/or associating with others who do. (She is currently being sued by a citizen named Arya Toufanian, who claims Lorenz has used her private Twitter account to destroy her reputation and business, particularly with a tweet that Lorenz kept pinned at the top of her Twitter page for eight months, while several other non-public figures complained that Lorenz has “reported” on their non-public activities). It is to be expected that a New York Times journalist who gets caught lying as she did against Andreessen and trying to destroy the reputations of non-public figures will be a topic of conversation.
The third reason this New York Times reporter is receiving attention is because she has become a leading advocate and symbol for a toxic tactic now frequently used by wealthy and influential public figures (like her) to delegitimize criticisms and even render off-limits any attempt to hold them accountable. Specifically, she and her media allies constantly conflate criticisms of people like them with “harassment,” “abuse” and even “violence.” . . . Read Full Article Here.
House Passes Biden’s $1.9 Trillion COVID-19 Relief Package
The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the updated version of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package. The vote was 220-211, with all Democrats voting for the bill except for Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) and all Republicans voting against it. The House passed a version of the bill late last month, followed by the […]
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GOP Rep. Reed: Biden’s bill sends $1,400 stimulus checks to ‘convicted child molesters’ in prison
“Why does a child molester who is sitting in state prison need $1,400 to buy cigarettes or play video games?” Reed asked.
40 House Republicans Join Democrats to Reject Greene’s Efforts to Delay Stimulus Package
Several-dozen House Republicans joined all Democrats in rejecting Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) bid to delay the $1.9 trillion stimulus package.
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Judicial Watch Sues CDC for Communications with Big Tech on COVID-19
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) seeking records of communications between the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Big Tech about COVID-19.
Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after HHS failed to reply to a September 15, 2020, FOIA request (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Health of Human Services (No. 1:21-cv-00625)). Judicial Watch requested:
Any and all records of communication between CDC officials and/or employees and employees, agents, and/or representatives of Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube concerning, regarding, or relating to COVID-19 related content on company platforms. Such records include, but are not limited to, any advice or instructions issued on disinformation re COVID-19.
The CDC was required to respond to Judicial Watch’s request by October 29, 2020 but failed to do so.
“The public has the right to know about CDC’s involvement in Big Tech’s outrageous censorship of Americans, including doctors, who raise questions about the COVID-19 response,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The Biden administration should stop stonewalling and release the records about the CDC’s role in suppressing the free speech of Americans.”
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Virginia state investigator alleges intimidation by Democratic Governor Northam’s staff
Plaintiff asks judge to declare her a whistleblower, order her agency to return her to work from her current status of paid leave.
Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 1 | Recorded March 10, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 36 Seconds
The true divide is not in the GOP, but between Washington and Wall Street versus the rest of the country. Our guests are: Jason Miller, Todd Bensman, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz.
Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 2 | Recorded March 10, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 28 Seconds
“You could make a little news on Meghan,” President Trump said. “She’s no good. I said she’s no good and now everybody’s seeing it.” Our guests are: Jason Miller.
Bannon’s War Room | Evening Edition | Recorded March 10, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 58 Seconds
“A billionaire was invited into the counting room,” Kline said. “And Americans were kicked out.” Our guests are: Maggie VandenBerghe, Phill Kline, Matt Braynard, Mark Krikorian.
It Appears The Children’s Defense Fund Broke The Law & Blatantly Violated It’s 501(c)(3) Restrictions
“Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity. Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes.” ~ The Restriction of Political Campaign Intervention by Section 501(c)(3) Tax-Exempt Organizations.
The Children’s Defense Fund made this stunningly inappropriate press release: “Statement: The Children’s Defense Fund Applauds Action to Impeach the President in which they asserted highly politically charged and inflammatory accusations. The press release started with, “The Children’s Defense Fund applauds the House of Representatives for voting on Wednesday to impeach the president for a second time, and urges the Senate to vote to convict the president and ensure he can never again hold the power of the presidency.” It goes downhill from there.
Arkansas Governor Signs Pro-Life Bill Into Law That Bans Most Abortions
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Tuesday signed a pro-life bill that bans most abortions in the state. While pro-life supporters hope the measure will encourage the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit its landmark Roe v. Wade decision, opponents of the law are seeking to block it before it’s enacted. The pro-life bill, now called the “Arkansas Unborn Child […]
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March 9, 2021 | Nightly News Rebroadcast | Video: 50 Minutes 23 Seconds
The Texas Governor says there is a crisis on the southern border, two important swing states are reforming their election laws, and every single staff member and consultant from the Nevada Democratic Party has quit.
Pfizer Demands Nations Put Up Collateral to Cover Vaccine Injury Lawsuits
Story at-a-glance:
- Pfizer is demanding countries put up sovereign assets, including bank reserves, military bases and embassy buildings, as collateral for expected vaccine injury lawsuits resulting from its COVID-19 inoculation.
- Argentina and Brazil have rejected Pfizer’s demands. According to legal experts, Pfizer is abusing its power.
- In the U.S., vaccine makers already enjoy full indemnity against injuries occurring from the COVID-19 vaccine under the PREP Act. If you’re injured, you’d have to file a compensation claim with the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP), which is funded by U.S. taxpayers.
- A significant problem with the CICP is that it’s administered within the Department of Health and Human Services, which is also sponsoring the COVID-19 vaccination program. This conflict of interest makes the CICP less likely to admit fault with the vaccine.
- The maximum CICP payout you can receive — even in cases of permanent disability or death — is $250,000 per person, and you first have to exhaust your private insurance policy before the CICP kicks in.
As reported by New Delhi-based World Is One News (WION), Pfizer is demanding countries put up sovereign assets as collateral for expected vaccine injury lawsuits resulting from its COVID-19 inoculation. In other words, it wants governments to guarantee the company will be compensated for any expenses resulting from injury lawsuits against it.
As detailed in my interview with Mikovits, the synthetic RNA influences the gene syncytin, which can result in:
- Brain inflammation.
- Dysregulated communication between the microglia in your brain, which are critical for clearing toxins and pathogens.
- Dysregulated immune system.
- Dysregulated endocannabinoid system (which calms inflammation).
Originally published by Mercola.
The post Pfizer Demands Nations Put Up Collateral to Cover Vaccine Injury Lawsuits appeared first on Children’s Health Defense.
Republican National Committee to hold part of annual donor retreat at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago
Trump is expected to give a dinner speech to donors.
Republican National Committee won’t comply with Trump order to stop using his name, likeness
The committee says it has “every right” to use Trump’s image.
Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 1 | Recorded March 9, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 29 Seconds
Boris Epshteyn says Roy Blunt’s retirement is a signal that the establishment knows “MAGA and the Republican Party is one and the same.” Our guests are: Maggie VandenBerghe, Matt Gaetz, Boris Epshteyn.
Publisher halts Cuomo book promotion, citing nursing home inquiry
There are “no plans” to reprint or republish Cuomo’s book, according to publisher.
Arizona and Montana Take Legal Action Against Biden Admin ICE Arrest Regulations
Arizona and Montana are taking legal action (pdf) to block new Biden administration immigration regulations, saying that these would cause negative consequences for the states. The new rules would limit the capability of ICE to detain some illegal immigrants unless they pose a threat to national security, entered through the border after Nov. 1, or committed aggravated felonies. The Biden administration says that the rules don’t impair arresting or deporting people, but the officers in the field would need to request permission from their superiors to arrest people outside of the aforementioned cases. “If asked about the poorest policy choice I’ve ever seen in government, this would be a strong contender,” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said in a statement. “Blindly releasing thousands of people, including convicted criminals and those who may be spreading COVID-19 into our state, is both unconscionable and a violation of federal law. This must be …
BREAKING: Massive 100,000 Migrants Flooded U.S. Border in Just 4 Weeks.
New numbers, reported by CNN, reveal the biblical scale of the Biden-induced mass migration headed to the U.S. border, with a reported 100,000+ arrests and apprehensions in the past four…
Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 2 | Recorded March 9, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 37 Seconds
“Joe Biden may be asleep at the wheel, but the car is still moving and it’s coming in our direction.” Our guests are: Maggie VandenBerghe, Matt Gaetz, Michael Yon, Ben Bergquam.
Number of migrant children detained on southern U.S. border has tripled over past two weeks
Over 5,800 unaccompanied children were found at the southern U.S. border in January, roughly 1,000 more compared to Oct. 2020
Tesla Loses More Than $244 Billion in a Month as Rally Fizzles
Shares of Tesla Inc. fell for a fifth consecutive session on Monday, caught in a tech-led selloff that has wiped more than $244 billion off the company’s market value over the last month. High-flying tech stocks, which powered the market’s rebound from the pandemic lows in March last year, have been hit by a one-two […]
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Bannon’s War Room | Evening Edition | Recorded March 9, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 58 Seconds
“The republic is dead,” she said. “It died Nov. 3 and it’s funeral was held on inauguration day.” Our guests are: Maggie VandenBerghe, Nigel Farage, Dr. Peter Navarro, Maura Monyhan.
Judicial Watch Sues for Records of Pelosi Call with Pentagon Chief
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense for records about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s January 8, 2021, telephone call with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Defense (No 1:21-cv-00593)).
Pelosi acknowledged the call in a January 8 letter to her Democratic colleagues. In the letter, Pelosi purportedly related her discussion with Milley earlier that same day: “This morning, I spoke to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike. The situation of this unhinged President could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy.”
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the Defense Department failed to respond to a January 11, 2021, Freedom of Information (FOIA) request for:
- Any and all records regarding, concerning, or related to the telephone call between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and General Mark Milley on or about January 8, 2021. This request includes, but is not limited to, any and all transcripts, recordings, and/or summaries of the call, as well as any other records produced in preparation for, during, and/or pursuant to the call.
- Any and all additional records of communication between Gen. Milley and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi between November 1, 2020 and the present.
In a section of the letter headed “Removing the President From Office,” Pelosi also told her colleagues:
As you know, there is growing momentum around the invocation of the 25th Amendment, which would allow the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet to remove the President for his incitement of insurrection and the danger he still poses. Yesterday, Leader Schumer and I placed a call with Vice President Pence, and we still hope to hear from him as soon as possible with a positive answer as to whether he and the Cabinet will honor their oath to the Constitution and the American people.
“If Speaker Pelosi’s description of her conversation with General Milley is true, it sets a dangerous precedent that could undermine the president’s role as commander in chief and the separation of powers,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Our new lawsuit aims to uncover truth about the call.”
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Chinese Communist Party Violating Every Act Of Genocide Convention New Legal Report Finds.
A new non-governmental legal report finds the Chinese Communist Party guilty of violating every article of the United Nations’ genocide convention. Published by the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy…
More Media Bias on Guns: CBS’s Magnum PI shows that supposedly if only a gun hadn’t sold a gun illegal man couldn’t have attempted suicide
CBS has been working closely with gun control groups to bias people’s views on gun ownership. In this episode of Magnum PI (Season 3, Episode 10, March 5, 2021), an Army ranger on leave obtains a gun illegally an attempts suicide. Somehow the claim is that if only the gun dealer hadn’t sold the gun illegally, he supposedly wouldn’t have been able to attempt suicide. Most suicides in the US involve guns, but that ignores that there are many close substitute methods of committing suicide.
For example, Vox (March 24, 2018) recently claimed: “Perhaps the reason access to guns so strongly contributes to suicides is that guns are much deadlier than alternatives like cutting and poison.” But this discussion gives a very misleading impression of the effectiveness of different suicide methods. A study looked at 4,117 cases of completed suicide in Los Angeles County during the period 1988-1991, and found that the success rates for stepping in front of a train, taking Cyanide, jumping from a height, or hanging are virtually the same as for a gunshot to the head or a shotgun to the chest. The study also estimated that the amount of pain and discomfort from being hit by a train was about half that of the other two methods. (Click on the pie charts to enlarge.) See discussions #12 through #15 here.
The post More Media Bias on Guns: CBS’s Magnum PI shows that supposedly if only a gun hadn’t sold a gun illegal man couldn’t have attempted suicide appeared first on Crime Prevention Research Center.
Iowa Governor Signs Bill to Limit Absentee and Early Voting, Close Polls Earlier
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Monday signed a bill to limit absentee voting, shorten early voting, and close the polls earlier on Election Day. The Republican-backed law, SF 413, will shorten the state’s early voting period from 29 to 20 days. It also requires most mail ballots to be received by Election Day. Previously, they could arrive by noon on the Monday after the election, if they were postmarked. Voting sites must close at 8 p.m., an hour earlier than before under the law. County auditors or other election officials are banned from sending out unsolicited absentee ballot request forms under the new law. They would also face penalties of up to $10,000 if they do not enforce state election laws or disobey the guidelines from the secretary of state. Under the law, county auditors are not permitted to set up satellite voting sites unless enough residents petition for one. Voters will be …
High Schools to Reopen in New York City
New York City high schools are opening back up this month. The city’s mayor said they have everything they need to bring high schools back strong and safely.
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