Lyme disease diagnostics review retracted for plagiarism

A review paper published in the Serbian journal Medicinski pregled (Medical review) has been retracted for plagiarising a 2002 paper published in the Croatian Journal of Infection (or Infektološki glasnik).

The retraction note (in Serbian only) in the current issue (vol. 65, issue 11-12) of Medicinski pregled, published by the Society of Physicians of Vojvodina of the Medical Society of Serbia reads:

At the initiative of the editors of Medicinski pregled and with an agreement of the authors, the article by Gajović O, Todorović Z, Nešić Lj, Lazić Z. ‘Lyme borreliosis: Diagnostic difficulties in interpreting serological results’ published in 2010 (volume 63, number 11-12, p. 839-843), is being retracted because it plagiarises Đaković Rode O, Ružić Sabljić E. ‘Lyme borelioza – diferencijalno dijagnostičke poteškoće u interpretaciji seroloških rezultata’ published in the journal Infektološki glasnik in 2002 (volume 22, number 2, p. 45-49).

However, the article is still accessible via the Serbian national citation index, SCIndeks, without a link to the retraction note.  And there is still no watermark on the pdf available at the database.

The journal’s site only lists pdfs of full journal issues, rather than individual papers, so the paper is also available there, also unmarked as retracted.

The journal’s editorial office tells Retraction Watch:

In accordance with COPE standards, the editorial of Medicinski pregled was only required to publish the retraction notice. Deleting or marking the article as retracted is a task for secondary sources/bases.

This is the first retraction case in our magazine. Considering that we have entered Aseestant system, future articles will be systematically checked for plagiarism.

The original 2002 paper does not seem to be available online as the journal’s online archives only go back to 2005.