In February 2022, the scientific journal The British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) announced the retraction of an editorial signed in 2005 by the then editor-in-chief of the journal, the Australian neurologist Paul McCrory. A specialist in the effects of concussions – brain injuries caused by blows to the head – in athletes, the researcher had participated in the elaboration of medical consensuses on the subject. The editorial copied excerpts from an article by the English physician Steve Haake on technology and Olympic sports, published in 2000 in the magazine Physics World – repetitions represented 50.7% of the text. At the time, McCrory admitted to plagiarism and apologized to Haake.
The episode put all of the neurologist’s scientific production under review and it was discovered that plagiarism was a recurrent practice in his routine. According to database records on the Retraction Watch website, McCrory has since had 10 editorials from the BJSM portrayed by copying excerpts from other works. In October, BMJ Publishing, responsible for the magazine, announced that the analysis of the former editor’s work is continuing and that it has identified 74 problematic articles: 71 in the BJSM 2 no British Medical Journal (The BMJ) and 1 in the journal Injury Prevention All were the target of an “expression of concern”, a feature used by journals to alert readers that the paper is under investigation and may be retracted soon.
The Australian Football League (AFL), which brings together teams from one of the country’s most popular sports, Australian rules football, has reviewed McCrory’s contributions to the organization and concluded that, despite the plagiarism in the editorials, they do not invalidate the concussion guidelines. adopted by the AFL, which the neurologist helped establish. to the website Guardian Australia the entity admitted, however, that a multimillion-dollar study coordinated by McCrory since 2014 on the long-term effects of concussion in athletes has not yet resulted in any scientific production due to “lack of governance, management and coordination”.