A tipster’s complaints have led to the retraction of two papers in the Journal of Neurosurgery for “plagiarism, duplicate publication, and copyright infringement.”
The corresponding author for both papers, Hung-Chuan Pan of Taichung Veterans General Hospital, had contacted the journal about publishing an erratum for one of the articles when the journal was tipped off by an email pointing out deeper problems in the two retracted papers.
The tipster provided evidence that alleged “a violation of ethics on the part of the authors,” according to the communications manager at the JNS Publishing Group, Jo Ann Eliason.
Both retraction notices, published October 2, detailed a number of “similarities” and “overlaps” in the papers.
The authors said that they had used the iThenticate “to ensure that our manuscript would have less than 30% overlap with previous papers,” according to the notice. Eliason said that this is not journal policy and they were unsure where the authors got that percentage from.
In one retracted paper, published in 2013, researchers examined how treadmill exercise can mobilize hematopoietic progenitor cells in bone marrow. It has been cited four times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge.
Some of the text in the Introduction and Methods sections overlapped with a 2009 paper in Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications that was written by four of the same authors (including Pan, listed as first author).
The retracted paper also showed similarities to figures in the other JNS retraction, a 2010 paper which shares five of the same authors, and also lists Pan as the corresponding author.
Here’s the full notice for the 2013 paper:
TO THE EDITOR: We regretfully retract the following paper in response to accusations that it contains materials that constitute plagiarism, duplicate publication, and copyright infringement:
Cheng FC, Sheu ML, Su HL, Chen YJ, Chen CJ, Chiu WT, Sheehan J, Pan HC: The effect of exercise on mobilization of hematopoietic progenitor cells involved in the repair of sciatic nerve crush injury. J Neurosurg 118:594–605, 2013.
Reasons for Retraction
1. There is some text overlap between the 2013 Journal of Neurosurgery (J Neurosurg) paper and the following article by the same research group, which appeared in Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications:
Pan HC, Wu HT, Cheng FC, Chen CH, Sheu ML, Chen CJ: Potentiation of angiogenesis and regeneration by G-CSF after sciatic nerve crush injury. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 382:177–182, 2009.
We agree that overlap is present in the Introduction and Methods sections, and we did not provide sufficient attribution to the earlier paper.
2. Some figure panels in the J Neurosurg paper have similar content to those in an earlier article published in the J Neurosurg, which shares some authors with the paper currently being retracted:
Cheng FC, Tai MH, Sheu ML, Chen CJ, Yang DY, Su HL, Ho SP, Lai SZ, Pan HC: Enhancement of regeneration with glia cell line-derived neurotrophic factor-transduced human amniotic fluid mesenchymal stem cells after sciatic nerve crush injury. J Neurosurg 112:868–879, 2010.
There is overlap in content between a few panels shown in Figs. 3 and 4 in the 2013 J Neurosurg paper and a few panels displayed in Figs. 3 and 4, respectively, in the 2010 J Neurosurg paper. in addition, we did not provide attribution to the earlier paper.
With respect to the text, before we submitted our manuscript, we used the anti-plagiarism program iThenticate to ensure that our manuscript would have less than 30% overlap with previous papers. We believed that this was sufficient, but actions taken by complainants and the Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group show that is not the case.
As to the complaint that there was overlap in our figures, it has been several years since we began to prepare the manuscript. Since that time, we did find similarities in one figure between our two J Neurosurg papers. We were in the process of correcting this error when the complaint was made. Unfortunately, our original data are no longer available, and we are unable to refer to them for additional clarification.
We apologize to the editor and readership of the Journal of Neurosurgery, and we hereby retract our 2013 J Neurosurg paper (J Neurosurg 118:594–605, 2013). As corresponding author, I retract this article on behalf of all authors.
The other retracted paper, which has been cited 39 times, looked at how transplanted stem cells can help repair a crushed sciatic nerve.
Along with similarities to the other 2013 JNS paper, portions of the text were “nearly identical” to parts of a 2001 article in Brain Research and a 2008 article in European Urology. Neither paper shares any authors with the retracted study.
Some of figure panels and text also overlap with a 2009 article in the Journal of Biomedical Science, which was co-authored by six of the authors from the retracted paper (and lists Pan as first author).
The notice reads:
TO THE EDITOR: We regretfully retract the following paper in response to accusations that it contains materials that constitute plagiarism, duplicate publication, and copyright infringement:
Cheng FC, Tai MH, Sheu ML, Chen CJ, Yang DY, Su HL, Ho SP, Lai SZ, Pan HC: Enhancement of regeneration with glia cell line-derived neurotrophic factor-transduced human amniotic fluid mesenchymal stem cells after sciatic nerve crush injury. J Neurosurg 112:868–879, 2010.
Reasons for Retraction
1. A portion of the text in the Discussion section of the 2010 Journal of Neurosurgery (J Neurosurg) paper is nearly identical to text published in the Discussion section of the following article whose authors are not listed in the J Neurosurg paper, and sufficient attribution was not given to this earlier work:
Chen ZY, Chai YF, Cao L, Lu CL, He C: Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor enhances axonal regeneration following sciatic nerve tran-section in adult rats. Brain Res 902:272–276, 2001.
2. Some of the text in the Introduction section of the 2010 J Neurosurg paper is identical or nearly identical to text published in the Introduction section of the following article whose authors are not listed in the J Neurosurg paper, and sufficient attribution was not given to this earlier work:
May F, Matiasek K, Vroemen M, Caspers C, Mrva T, Arndt C, Schlenker B, Gais P, Brill T, Buchner A, Blesch A, hartung R, Stief C, Gansbacher B, Weidner N: GDNF-transduced Schwann cell grafts enhance regeneration of erectile nerves. Eur Urol 54:1179–1187, 2008.
Some text and figure panels in the 2010 J Neurosurg paper are very similar to what was published in the following paper, which shares some authors with the 2010 J Neurosurg paper:
Pan HC, Yang DY, Ho SP, Sheu ML, Chen CJ, Hwang SM, Chang MH, Cheng FC: escalated regeneration in sciatic nerve crush injury by the combined therapy of human amniotic fluid mesenchymal stem cells and fermented soybean extracts, Natto. J Biomed Sci 16:75, 2009.
Specifically, portions of text in the Introduction of the 2010 J Neurosurg paper can also be found in the Introduction of the 2009 article in the Journal of Biomedical Science, without any attribution. in addition, there appears to be duplication of content within some figure panels displayed in Figs. 3 and 4 in the J Neurosurg paper and some panels shown in Figs. 3 and 4, respectively, in the 2009 article in J Biomed Sci.
With respect to the text, before we submitted our manuscript, we used the anti-plagiarism program iThenticate to ensure that our manuscript would have less than 30% overlap with previous papers. We believed that this was sufficient, but actions taken by complainants and the Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group show that is not the case.
As to the complaint that there was overlap in our figures, it has been some time since the publication of our 2010 paper. our original data are no longer available, and we are unable to refer to them.
We apologize to the editor and readership of the Journal of Neurosurgery, and we hereby retract our 2010 J Neurosurg paper (J Neurosurg 112:868–879, 2010). As corresponding author, I retract this article on behalf of all authors.
When asked for a statement, Pan sent us a copy of his previous request for an erratum, and copies of the retraction notices.
Eliason told us the journal received a complaint about both papers in 2014:
We received an email complaint from a reader on March 19, 2014, about both articles. The reader provided us with several documents (articles by the authors, articles by other groups, and comparisons of figures from the two papers and other papers). The reader claimed that the information showed a violation of ethics on the part of the authors.
She confirmed that Pan had reached out a month earlier to correct one of the papers, but the erratum was put on hold after they received the complaint:
We received an email from the authors on February 19, 2014, stating that there was a problem with figures in the article “The effect of exercise on mobilization of hematopoietic progenitor cells involved in the repair of sciatic nerve crush injury. Laboratory investigation,” and that the authors would like to correct it. We set up a file to prepare an erratum notice, but the file was put on hold when we received the complaint against this paper and then abandoned when the authors agreed to prepare a retraction notice.
When asked about the authors’ belief that using iThenticate to verify that the papers had less than 30 percent overlap would be “sufficient,” she said:
We do not know why the authors believed that “less than 30 percent overlap with other papers” is sufficient. We state on our submission site that we use iThenticate to point out overlap between submitted papers and previously published papers. We have no published policy on what percent of overlap is “safe.” Internally, we have our own “red flag” to indicate what papers should be evaluated more thoroughly, but we do not publicize what this red flag is.
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This is not plagiarism [unattributed use of the work of others] — it is only so-called “self-plagiarism” and some copyright infringement by the set of coauthors.
“Some of the text in the Introduction and Methods sections overlapped with a 2009 paper in Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications that was written by four of the same authors (including Pan, listed as first author). The retracted paper also showed similarities to figures in the other JNS retraction, a 2010 paper which shares five of the same authors, and also lists Pan as the corresponding author.