Researchers admit to self-plagiarism, withdraw paper

[finally clearing out a large backlog, sorry about that - dww]

Spiegel online reports that stem cell researchers Karim Nayernia from Newcastle University and Wolfgang Engel from the University of Göttingen (yes, the German university of fabricated publications fame) have withdrawn a paper they published in July 2009 in "Stem Cells and Development" about producing male sperm from stem cells.

The research has caused quite a stir, so the withdrawal has also been disturbing. It appears that a large part of the introduction is a self-plagiarism without source from a previous paper published by the research group. Additionally, one of the authors listed on the paper states that he did not read the paper before it was published.

Nayernia and Engel insist that the data is valid, and regret the unintended self-plagiarism. Further reports say that the researcher responsible for the plagiarism has been fired.