Cancer study pulled when published without supervisor’s consent

The Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences has retracted a paper after concerns surfaced from a researcher who claims to have supervised the research but was not listed as a co-author.

The first author completed the research — which explored the use of epigenetic alterations as potential early signs of cancer — as part of her master’s degree, under the supervision of Muy-Teck Teh at the Barts & The London School of Medicine & Dentistry. When Teh contacted the journal to say he had not consented to the publication, Ayesha Umair claimed she had paid for the research herself.

Here’s the retraction note for “Quantitative study of epigenetic signature in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma,” which tells us more about the dispute:

Dr Muy-Teck Teh, Senior Lecturer at the Head & Neck Cancer Centre for Clinical & Diagnostic Oral Sciences, Barts & the London School of Medicine & Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, wrote to our journal informing us that he had been the supervisor of Ayesha Umair (Ayesha Nadir), and the study named above was based on Dr Umair’s MSc project (2010–2011) and that all experimental designs (primer sequences etc.), materials, patients samples, and methods had been designed and provided by himself and the work done at his research lab in London. Dr Teh also stated that these research data were published without his knowledge or permission. Therefore, he requested the retraction of the paper. Dr Umair accepted that Dr Teh was her supervisor during her MSc at Queen Mary University of London in 2010–2011 and that the article was based on her thesis. However, she stated that the work that she published in our journal is her own work that she had performed at the Centre of Clinical & Oral Diagnosis, Barts & the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, and that her study was fully self-funded without any financial support from the university or Dr Teh. However, Dr Teh found her explanations unacceptable, because he had helped Dr Umair to write the paper and that all the experimental details (e.g., primer sequences and protocols) and all ideas were his work. Under these circumstances, our ethical committee decided to retract the paper.

Muy-Teck Teh and Ayesha Umair (under the name of Ayesha Nadir) have co-authored a 2012 PLOS ONE paper about the use of epigenetics in cancer detection.

According to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge, the paper in question has not yet been cited.

We’ve reached out to Ayesha Umair from the Al-Farabi College of Dentistry and Nursing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Muy-Teck Teh at the Barts & the London School of Medicine & Dentistry, and the editor of the journal for comments. We’ll update this post with anything else we learn.

Hat tip: Rolf Degen

Like Retraction Watch? Consider making a tax-deductible contribution to support our growth. You can also follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, add us to your RSS reader, and sign up on our homepage for an email every time there’s a new post. Click here to review our Comments Policy.