The editors of ACS’s Journal of Chemical and Engineering Data have sunk a paper on halogenated alkanes after realizing that “a significant amount” of the data was “inaccurate,” thereby “invalidating” the paper.
Here’s the notice for “Influence of Solvent Nature on the Solubility of Halogenated Alkanes” (which has only been cited twice, according to Google Scholar):
This article was retracted at the request of the Editor-in-Chief as a significant amount of data reported within the article was found to be inaccurate, thus invalidating the scientific conclusions of the article. The paper describes the existence of phase equilibria in the solubility of 19 halogenated alkanes in polar and nonpolar solvents, and a number of these systems have been found to exhibit only a single phase over the entire composition range, which calls the entire data set into question.
We’ve reached out to the authors and journal, and will update if we learn anything new.
Hat tip Rolf Degen.
While the journal and authors mull a response, perhaps they could also explain the following:
a) when exactly was this “significant amount of data” found to be inaccurate?
b) who discovered this inaccuracy?
c) why was the inaccuracy not discovered during peer review?
d) who will contact the two papers that cited this paper and correct that literature with an erratum?