Algorithm likely erased two of Max Planck's 1940s papers from a journal

Two papers published by Nobel laureate Max Planck in the 1940s have quietly vanished from the journal Naturwissenschaften (now The Science of Nature). Rather than the journal’s usual practice of stamping a ‘RETRACTED’ watermark on a still-downloadable PDF, these articles were pulled entirely—replaced by blank pages and empty files bearing only a terse note that they were ‘withdrawn due to article violation.’ Given Planck’s spotless reputation, the move made no obvious sense.

The disappearance was spotted by physics historian Yves Gingras, who was browsing Retraction Watch’s roster of Nobel winners with retracted work and was startled to find Planck listed. He and fellow historian Mahdi Khelfaoui dug into the case and published their findings in an arXiv preprint. Tellingly, the journal’s current editor-in-chief, Suzanne Scarlata, had no idea the retractions had happened until a reporter asked her about them, and she attributed the flagging to an automated ‘algorithm’ that the publisher should fix.

The episode points less to scientific misconduct than to the unchecked automation now running through academic publishing pipelines—systems capable of erasing decades-old foundational work without a human in the loop. Adding an absurd footnote, Springer Nature was reportedly still charging $39.95 for the empty PDFs, though copies could also be downloaded for free.