Agitating snakes isn’t something most of us would do on purpose, but for a group of researchers, it was central to their research. The authors of a May 2024 paper in Scientific Reports achieved that by "softly" stepping on the head, tail and mid-body of newborn, juvenile and adult pit vipers to see how often they would bite.

But the technique wasn’t quite what the authors’ ethics committee had in mind when approving the study. The journal retracted the paper last month, noting the ethics approval the authors received "did not include newborn snakes or the use of the "soft stepping’ method". Lead author João Miguel Alves-Nunes blamed the retraction on a "communication error" by the ethics committee.

Readers raised ethical concerns about the study shortly after its publication, Rafal Marszalek, the journal’s chief editor, told us. All authors disagreed with the retraction, the notice states. Alves-Nunes called the decision to retract "disproportionate. The mistake made was bureaucratic, not scientific fraud, plagiarism, or experimental error".

Source https://retractionwatch.com/2025/03/07/snakes-soft-stepping-retraction-butantan-institute/

Another high-profile case has interested scientists. Read now