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Journal Retracts Two 1940s Papers by Nobel Physicist Max Planck
Ars Technica reported that Naturwissenschaften removed two papers by Max Planck from the 1940s. Historians found the retractions on a list of Nobel winners and published findings on arXiv. The current editor said an algorithm likely caused the action.
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Naturwissenschaften has retracted two papers written by Max Planck in the 1940s and removed them entirely from its website. ” Physics historian Yves Gingras of the University of Quebec in Montreal noticed Planck’s name on Retraction Watch’s list of Nobel Prize winners with retracted papers.
Gingras enlisted historian Mahdi Khelfaoui of the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières to examine the cases, and the pair detailed their findings in a preprint posted to the physics arXiv.
Max Planck received the 1918 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of quanta. No prior questions had been raised about the integrity of his work. Suzanne Scarlata, the journal’s current editor-in-chief at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, said she had not known about the retractions until contacted by Science reporter Sam Kean.
“That’s crazy,” she said. “I don’t understand why they were flagged. I think it just happened with their algorithm. ” Springer Nature sells the empty PDFs for $39.95 each, though both files remain available for free download from the journal’s site.
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