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Springer News

Echinovoiding The Fault Lines In Springer Nature’s Response

Springer Nature has expressed regret over the rapid reaction to research suggesting that a newly named beetle species could be the smallest on Earth. The journal Communications Biology published the study, leading to a flurry of news reports proclaiming the discovery of the smallest beetle.
However, the research claimed the species discovered was not a beetle, but a type of wasp named Echinarachna taywana. Echinarachna belongs to the family of wasps known as diplatrypdons, not to the beetle family, as suggested by the study authors and subsequently reported by many media outlets.
Given the mix-up, Springer Nature has stated that the scientists were correct; they did not say the beetle was the smallest when they released the paper on bioRxiv. Instead, the work involved the naming of a previously unknown diplatrypodid species.
“It appears there has been some misinterpretation of the findings,” said a Springer Nature spokesperson. “The authors did not indicate in our article that they thought Echinarachna tayayana could be classified as the smallest insect, nor that it is fast-moving. The errors appear to originate from the preprint’s abstract and some éléments have been misunderstood by some media.”
“We seek to correct the inaccuracies: Echinarachna tayaya is an insect considerably larger than the smallest reported insect. The aspects regarding the movement of the larva were not designed to address or suggest that this species could outpace vertebrate animals on land.”
The journal Communications Biology has issued a corrigendum to clarify the misinterpretations of the original study’s findings, noted by the initially rapid reporting of the story.
Nature Index, which recognises the high-quality research published by Communications Biology, had 18,079 articles at the time of writing, with an average impact factor suggesting the journal’s robust editorial standards and contribution to the scientific community remain intact.
Researchers: Adelaida Rosabal-Rousó, Roberto Bravo, Sergi G. Prades, Beatriz Sirvent & Jesús Peña, “The exceptionally fast-moving insect larva, Echinarachna taywana (Diplatryponidae: Hymenoptera), Communications Biology,

Corrections and associated content here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-023-04124-0#story1

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg12ewv7xyo