A urologist in Iran has lost three papers in BJU International, bringing his retraction count to a half-dozen.
In December 2013, we reported on three retractions by Mohammad Reza Safarinejad. None of those notices, about papers related to incontinence and erectile dysfunction, made the reasons for retraction very clear. After that post ran, Safarinejad told us that Hartmut Porst, former president of the European Society for Sexual Medicine, had raised questions about the data in a number of his papers. Porst confirmed that for us earlier this month.
All of the latest papers, about aspects of male sexual dysfunction, are being retracted due to “inappropriate” statistical analyses.
Here’s the notice for “Analysis of association between the 5-HTTLPR and STin2 polymorphisms in the serotonin-transporter gene and clinical response to a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (sertraline) in patients with premature ejaculation,” which has been cited 17 times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge:
The above article, published online on 22nd June 2009 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), has been retracted by agreement between the journal Editor in Chief, Professor Prokar Dasgupta and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. The retraction has been agreed after an independent review found inappropriate statistical analyses in which four odds ratios had confidence intervals that were inconsistent with the point estimate.
And the notice for “A double-blind placebo-controlled study of the efficacy and safety of pentoxifylline in early chronic Peyronie’s disease,” a paper also cited 17 times:
The above article, published online on 26th Oct 2009 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), has been retracted by agreement between the journal Editor in Chief, Professor Prokar Dasgupta and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. The retraction has been agreed after an independent review found a pattern of inappropriate statistical analysis.
Finally, the notice for “The effects of the adjunctive bupropion on male sexual dysfunction induced by a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor: a double-blind placebo-controlled and randomized study,” a paper cited 14 times:
The above article, published online on 8th Jan 2010 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), has been retracted by agreement between the journal Editor in Chief, Professor Prokar Dasgupta and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. The retraction has been agreed after an independent review found a pattern of inappropriate statistical analysis.
Safarinejad has not responded to request for comment about these three retractions.
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I guess you could say he was suffering from a statistical analysis dysfunction.
Sorry, follow up joke. Maybe he needs a daily dose of statistica.
He leaked his results before time.
Would the papers have been pulled if someone less powerful than the former president of the ESSM interjected? Does the power of complaint of a lay-man, middle-class scientist carry the same wieght as a complaint by someone as powerful as Porst (for any field of study)?