A Ph.D. student found a fundamental flaw in research published in 2014, and upon which she was building her research, which led to a retraction by the original author.

Susanne Stoll, at the Department of Experimental Psychology at University College London, said she thought she had made a mistake when trying to replicate the results of previous work in brain research.

“When I first stumbled upon the error, I had no clue what I was dealing with. I thought I had accidentally messed up my experiment because I obtained similar results in fairly distinct experimental conditions,” Stoll said in emails with VOA Student Union. “There was no extraordinary feeling I experienced. Errors are everyday business in science after all.”

Stoll tried to duplicate the results and checked the programming codes to determine where she had erred.

“The idea here is that if the analysis pipeline works the way it should, an analysis on random data should not produce the type of result I observed,” she said of research written about in a paper by Benjamin de Haas and colleagues while at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London in 2014.

“However, when I ran the analysis on random data, I obtained similar results as with the original data,” Stoll said.

After consulting colleagues, they determined she had revealed an error in the original research. They encouraged her to explore and correct it. When she reached out to de Haas, he was eager to help Stoll correct what they determined was an oversight.

He “was as keen as everyone else to figure things out despite knowing that he might need to retract his paper,” Stoll said. The process to reexamine one’s work is tedious, she said, but necessary to correct the error, which other papers reprinted.

'We apologize'

“We apologize to the scientific community for any inconvenience caused...Finally, we would like to thank our colleague Susanne Stoll, who first pointed out the problem to us and plans to publish in due course a more general exposition on the difficulties of this approach,” they wrote.

Mistakes are difficult for many professionals to admit. Retractions in science and medicine are not looked upon favorably, but they are necessary to clear the record about the process, accuracy and validity of medical and scientific research.

And they occur more often than most people realize.

Retraction Watch first published Stoll’s story. The staff has identified dozens of retractions of published results regarding the worldwide outbreak of the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 disease. The ailment has caused more than 1.8 million deaths worldwide, including more than 357,000 in the United States, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

Some of the journals that have seen papers retracted include The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Annals of Internal Medicine, Journal of Public Health, Asian Journal of Psychiatry, Korean Journal of Anesthesiology and Chinese Journal of Epidemiology.

Retraction Watch is a function of the Center for Scientific Integrity, whose mission is “to promote transparency and integrity in science and scientific publishing, and to disseminate best practices and increase efficiency in science.”

Who funded the research?

In addition to protecting the integrity of science, Retraction Watch sheds light on the funding process.

“Most retractions live in obscurity in Medline and other databases. That means those who funded the retracted research — often taxpayers — aren’t particularly likely to find out about them,” it says in answers in its frequently asked questions section. “Nor are investors always likely to hear about retractions on basic science papers whose findings may have formed the basis for companies into which they pour dollars.”

Sciencemag.org quoted Retraction Watch in a 2018 article that said retractions had increased tenfold between 2000 and 2014, likely because of increased editorial oversight. Still, 60% of retractions are because of fraud, Sciencemag.org said.

Fraud occurs when a researcher asserts information that has not been scientifically proven or vetted. One famous case, according to the science journal Nature, is that of Yoshihiro Sato, who for nearly 20 years "fabricated data and forged authorships — prompting retractions of more than 60 studies," it reported its website in 2019.

“There is certainly a stigma attached to retractions, which are often exclusively associated with fraud,” Stoll said. “However, both an oversight and fraud can lead to retraction. It is important to distinguish these cases, and I hope that our case encourages other researchers to correct their honest mistakes and that this moves science forward.”

Ruth Chane, a computer science major from Ethiopia, writes about her experiences settling into student life at Whitman College in the U.S. state of Washington.

"The community at Whitman College made sure I felt welcomed even before I stepped foot on campus," she says.

Read her essay here.

In The Student Life, the student newspaper for the Claremont Colleges, a consortium of five liberal art colleges and two graduate schools in Claremont, California, student Rochelle Lu writes about readjusting to her Shanghai home after spending a semester in the United States.

Read the full story here.

Cedarville University in the U.S. state of Ohio says it’s got more than 140 international students representing 44 countries.

Here, the school interviews Jonathan Sutton, director of international student services. He talks about his job and the opportunities for international students on campus.

Read the full article here.

Morehouse College, a private, historically Black liberal arts college in the U.S. state of Georgia, offers a guide for international students interested in attending the school.

Among the tips to apply and thrive at Morehouse:

• Take advantage of the school’s orientation program
• Turn to the school’s Center for Academic Success for tutoring, support and more
• Immerse yourself in campus life via clubs and societies

Read the full article here.

WASHINGTON — 

The administration of President Donald Trump said on Monday it will review Columbia University's federal contracts and grants over allegations of antisemitism, which it says the educational institution has shown inaction in tackling.

Rights advocates note rising antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias since U.S. ally Israel's devastating military assault on Gaza began after Palestinian Hamas militants' deadly October 2023 attack.

The Justice Department said a month ago it formed a task force to fight antisemitism. The U.S. Departments of Health and Education and the General Services Administration jointly made the review announcement on Monday.

"The Federal Government's Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is considering Stop Work Orders for $51.4 million in contracts between Columbia University and the Federal Government," the joint statement said.

The agencies said no contracting actions had been taken yet.

"The task force will also conduct a comprehensive review of the more than $5 billion in federal grant commitments to Columbia University."

The agencies did not respond to requests for comment on whether there were similar reviews over allegations of Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias.

Columbia had no immediate comment. It previously said it made efforts to tackle antisemitism.

College protests

Trump has signed an executive order to combat antisemitism and pledged to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests.

Columbia was at the center of college protests in which demonstrators demanded an end to U.S. support for Israel due to the humanitarian crisis caused by Israel's assault on Gaza. There were allegations of antisemitism and Islamophobia in protests and counter-protests.

During last summer's demonstrations around the country, classes were canceled, some university administrators resigned and student protesters were suspended and arrested.

While the intensity of protests has decreased in recent months, there were some demonstrations last week in New York after the expulsion of two students at Columbia University-affiliated Barnard College and after New York Governor Kathy Hochul ordered the removal of a Palestinian studies job listing at Hunter College.

A third student at Barnard College has since been expelled, this one related to the occupation of the Hamilton Hall building at Columbia last year.