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We Have a Sinking Feeling About This

May 08, 2009

Jonathan Rochkind has a blog post at Bibliographic Wilderness that suggests Elsevier and Merck's fake journal might not be a one-time collapse in judgment. After doing some research, he found that the phony journal was published under the "Excerpta Medica Communications" imprint -- which runs 50 other publications. "Certainly I’d think anything published under this imprint, if not anything by Elsevier in general, is suspect," Rochkind writes, noting that its website describes Excerpta as "a strategic medical communications agency [that partners with] clients in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries to educate the global health care community." Bloggers are abuzz with the news; check out commentaries at Ouroboros and Open Reading Frame.

Breaking News
The Scan

Pig Organ Transplants Considered

The Wall Street Journal reports that the US Food and Drug Administration may soon allow clinical trials that involve transplanting pig organs into humans.

'Poo-Bank' Proposal

Harvard Medical School researchers suggest people should bank stool samples when they are young to transplant when they later develop age-related diseases.

Spurred to Develop Again

New Scientist reports that researchers may have uncovered why about 60 percent of in vitro fertilization embryos stop developing.

Science Papers Examine Breast Milk Cell Populations, Cerebral Cortex Cellular Diversity, Micronesia Population History

In Science this week: unique cell populations found within breast milk, 100 transcriptionally distinct cell populations uncovered in the cerebral cortex, and more.