Third structure slip-up for chemist in Korea yields retraction

Authors of a 2010 Chemistry – A European Journal article have retracted it “due to the wrong assignment of structure” of catalysts.

The retraction is the third, by our count, for corresponding author Doo Ok Jang, a chemist at Yonsei University in Wonju. Jang authored one of the previously retracted papers with Sung Jun Kim and the other with Sang Yoon Kim. Both papers were also sunk by misassigned structures.

The current study, “Enantioselective Radical Addition to Ketimines: A Synthetic Route Towards α,α-Disubstituted α-Amino Acids,” is authored by all three chemists. Here’s the retraction notice:

This article from Chemistry – A European Journal, published online on October 11, 2010 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), has been retracted by agreement between the authors, the journal Editor in Chief, Neville Compton, and Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA. The retraction has been agreed due to the wrong assignment of structure to prepared compounds 1c and 1d, which were used as catalysts in the title transformation. Accordingly, although the assigned structure, optical purity, and yield of products obtained through the title transformation are believed to be correct, conclusions derived from ¹H NMR data obtained to determine the reaction mechanism are invalid.

The article has not been cited.

We’ve reached out to the Jang and to the editor of Chemistry and will report back if they reply.

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