Science and Honesty: David Vaux “Why I retracted my Nature paper”

There is a very insightful article on the difficulties of overcoming bad science that has been published in respected journals on the blog Retraction Watch. David Vaux from Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research found himself in the awkward position of having written an article lauding a breakthrough paper on transplant research only to find later that none of the results could be replicated and that in fact the techniques used actually increased rejection rates. Originally, Dr. Vaux wanted to submit a rebuttal manuscript to the original paper,

I was becoming increasingly frustrated by Nature’s refusal to abide by its own ethical policies to publish rebuttals, and Nature Medicine’s decisions apparently based on papers’ sources rather than their contents, when I had a flash of inspiration – I had published a News and Views extolling the virtues of Bellgrau et al.’s paper – now I could retract it! — David Vaux

For a interesting read, check out Dr. Vaux’s account of this incident at Retraction Watch.