Another retraction has appeared for Teresita Briones, who used to study neuroscience at Wayne State University — the final of five papers flagged by the Office of Research Integrity for containing falsified data.
According to the ORI notice published in May, Briones “intentionally, knowingly, and recklessly engaged in research misconduct by falsifying and/or fabricating data.” This latest paper to be retracted, which looks at the role of specific receptor in chronic inflammation of nervous tissue in rats, has two figures that “were duplicated, reused and falsely relabelled, and claimed to represent different experiments,” according to the retraction note.
The retraction note for “Chronic neuroinflammation and cognitive impairment following transient global cerebral ischemia: role of fractalkine/CX3CR1 signaling,” published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation, specifies the problematic figures:
This article [1] has been retracted by the Editors-in-Chief. Based on the report of an inquiry conducted by Wayne State University and additional analysis conducted by the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) [2], the ORI informed the journal that the first author Dr Teresita L. Briones engaged in research misconduct by falsifying and/or fabricating data by falsely reporting the results of western blot experiments and that data reported in Figures 2A and 2C in [1] were duplicated, reused and falsely relabelled, and claimed to represent different experiments. We have not been able to contact any of the authors.
Here’s the figure in question:
The paper has been cited seven times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge.
We’ve been unable to reach Briones.
Hat tip: Rolf Degen
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Six and a half years later, another retraction: https://actaneurocomms.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40478-022-01380-1
“The Editor-in-Chief has retracted this article because of significant concerns regarding a number of Figures presented in this work. After publication, duplicated western blot bands were identified in Figs. 2b (AMPK lanes 2&3) and 3b (uM1CK lanes 1&2), as well as Fig. 3a (beta-actin lanes 1 and 2). The Editor-in-Chief therefore no longer has confidence in the integrity of the data in this article.
Magdalena Rogozinska has stated that she was not involved in the preparation of the manuscript.
Teresita L. Briones agrees to this retraction. Magdalena Rogozinska has not responded to any recent correspondence from the Publisher to indicate they agree or disagree with this Retraction Notice. The Publisher has not been able to contact Julie Woods.”