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Why did this journal retract two 1940s papers by Max Planck?
Clicking on the links now reveals blank pages and empty PDFs. “Intellectually, it’s not acceptable.”
TL;DR
- Two papers by Nobel laureate Max Planck from the 1940s were retracted by the journal Naturwissenschaften.
- The retractions were discovered by science historians Yves Gingras and Mahdi Khelfaoui.
- The journal removed the papers entirely, leaving blank pages and empty PDFs.
- The suspected reason for retraction is copyright violation or "article violation," not scientific inaccuracy.
- Historians believe the retractions are due to a misunderstanding of past publication practices by the journal's publisher, Springer Nature, during a transition to electronic publishing.
- One paper was published elsewhere and as a booklet, while the other shared a title with a response to another scientist's work.
- Applying current standards of duplicate publication to historical texts is problematic.
- The journal's publisher declined to comment, citing confidentiality.
- Historians argue that removing these papers distorts the historical record.