Dipak Das, the UConn researcher whom the university earlier ths year found to have fabricated or falsified data more than 100 times, has four more retractions to his name.
The notices appear in the June 1, 2012 issue of the American Journal of Physiology: Heart and Circulatory Physiology, and suggest that Das was not all that cooperative:
- “Pharmacological preconditioning with resveratrol: role of nitric oxide,” published in 2002 and cited 142 times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge:
Hattori R, Otani H, Maulik N, Das DK. Pharmacological preconditioning with resveratrol: role of nitric oxide. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 282: H1988–H1995, 2002; doi:10.1152/ajpheart.01012.2001 (http://ajpheart.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/282/6/H1988).
A research misconduct investigation at the University of Connecticut Health Center has determined that images appearing in Fig. 7A of the paper contain instances of data fabrication. Therefore, this article is being retracted by the American Physiological Society.
Please note that effort was made to contact all authors. However, responses were not received from N. Maulik and D. Das. Contact information for R. Hattori and H. Otani could not be found.
- “Cardioprotection with palm tocotrienol: antioxidant activity of tocotrienol is linked with its ability to stabilize proteasomes,” published in 2005 and cited 43 times:
Das S, Powell SR, Wang P, Divald A, Nesaretnam K, Tosaki A, Cordis GA, Maulik N, Das DK. Cardioprotection with palm tocotrienol: antioxidant activity of tocotrienol is linked with its ability to stabilize proteasomes. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 289: H361–H367, 2005; doi:10.1152/ajpheart.01285.2004 (http://ajpheart.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/289/1/H361).
A research misconduct investigation at the University of Connecticut Health Center has determined that images appearing in Fig. 3 of the paper contain instances of data fabrication. Therefore, this article is being retracted by the American Physiological Society in agreement with the authors.
Please note that effort was made to contact all authors. However, responses were not received from S. Das, P. Wang, A. Divald, N. Maulik, and D. Das. Contact information for G. A. Cordis could not be found.
- “Targeted disruption of peroxiredoxin 6 gene renders the heart vulnerable to ischemia-reperfusion injury,” published in 2006 and cited 35 times:
Nagy N, Malik G, Fisher AB, Das DK. Targeted disruption of peroxiredoxin 6 gene renders the heart vulnerable to ischemia-reperfusion injury. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 291: H2636–H2640, 2006; doi:10.1152/ajpheart.00399.2006 (http://ajpheart.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/291/6/H2636).
A research misconduct investigation at the University of Connecticut Health Center has determined that images appearing in Fig. 1 of the paper contain instances of data fabrication. Therefore, this article is being retracted by the American Physiological Society with the agreement of the authors.
Please note that effort was made to contact all authors. However, responses were not received from N. Nagy and D. Das.
- “Cardioprotection with palm oil tocotrienols: comparison of different isomers,” published in 2008 and cited 19 times:
Das S, Lekli I, Das M, Szabo G, Varadi J, Juhasz B, Bak I, Nesaretnam K, Tosaki A, Powell SR, Das DK. Cardioprotection with palm oil tocotrienols: comparison of different isomers. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 294: H970–H978, 2008; doi:10.1152/ajpheart.01200.2007 (http://ajpheart.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/294/2/H970).
A research misconduct investigation at the University of Connecticut Health Center has determined that images appearing in Fig. 8, A and B, of the paper contain instances of data falsification. Therefore, this article is being retracted by the American Physiological Society with the agreement of the authors.
Please note that an effort was made to contact all authors. However, responses were not received from S. Das, and D. Das and contact information for G. Szabo could not be found.
The notices, which brings Das’s retraction total to 12, are a good reminder that journal editors can retract papers unilaterally — a power some editors seem either unaware of, or reluctant to use.
Hat tip: elledr1ver
Really? Could not find contact information for Hajime Otani? I think I just did with a mere 5 minutes of smart googling! I sent him an e-mail, so let’s see whether I got that one right 🙂
I don’t think I’d have much to say to my editor either…
It’s about time the final version of the UConn investigation was published, and ORI released a statement about this whole sordid affair. I’m actually far more interested in what happened to the others involved apart from Das? It’s pretty obvious from the fallout both online and elsewhere that Das’s career is over, but he was old and about to retire anyway. Far more important, the UConn investigation has to-date only been released in preliminary format, and it specifically mentions ongoing proceedings on a number of other faculty, most notably Nilanjala Maulik. She’s still young(ish) and has a lot more to lose if her career goes the same way as Das. The fact she didn’t respond to the editors either is quite telling… generally speaking if you have skin left in the game, you fight, or at the very least you graciously respond when your opponent asks “had enough?”
Also notable is Das has 16 publications in AJP Heart. Are these 4 the only ones to be retracted? One of his others (PMID 17277024) was the subject of two separate corrigenda, in which apologies were made for pasting incorrect western blots. I wonder…..
It’s them gol-durned western blots agin, ma… (sorry, I couldn’t help myself.)
No it’s not only WBs. Check his fig. 5 (control vs AG+RESVERATROL) – cardiomyocytes pictures below the graph.
http://ajpheart.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/282/6/H1988
yes. with my sclerotic corneas, all I could see was that the first and last micrographs (“control” and “ag+resveratrol”) are identical. but that doesn’t make any sense, unless you’re lazy and don’t think anyone’s looking.
I’d love to see the final version of the UConn investigation, also. Anyone have a link, or is it not yet available?