With so many retraction notices pouring in, from time to time we compile a handful of straight-forward retractions.
Once again, this list focuses on duplications — but unlike other duplications, these authors were not at fault. Rather, these retractions occurred because the publishers mistakenly published the same paper twice — the result of a transfer between publishers, for instance, or accidentally publishing the unedited version of the paper. We’re forced to wonder, as we have before, whether saddling researchers’ CVs with a retraction is really the most fair way to handle these cases.
So without further ado, here’s five cases where the journal mistakenly duplicated a paper, and had to retract one version:
1. Effects of thymoquinone (volatile oil of black cumin) on rheumatoid arthritis in rat models. Phytotherapy Research. 2006. 20: 869-871. Ibraham Tekeoglu, Ali Dogan, Levent Demiralp. Cited 28 times (The non-retracted copy has been cited 51 times). Retracted March 2015:
The above article , published online on 1 1 July 2006 in Wiley Online Library (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ptr.1964/abstract), has been retracted by agreement between the authors, the journal Editor, Elizabeth Williamson, and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. The retraction has been agreed due to the above article being an earlier version of the article ‘Effects of thymoquinone (volatile oil of black cumin) on rheumatoid arthritis in rat models’ by Ibrahim Tekeoglu, Ali Dogan, Levent Ediz, Mustafa Budancamanak and Adnan Demirel ( Tekeoglu et. al, 2007), which was also published in Phytotherapy Research. The duplicate publication is the result of an administrative error.The publisher apologises for any inconvenience.
Elizabeth Williamson, the editor-in-chief, explained how the duplication likely happened:
This was a very unusual situation – for some reason, the unrevised version was published in error, followed later by the revised accepted version. I have absolutely no idea how this happened, whether it was a technical or other issue. At the time, the electronic work flow of the journal was being changed so I’m not sure if this was part of it. The retracted version is the first one obviously.
2. Discussion of paper ‘Development of a family of unconditionally stable explicit direct integration algorithms with controllable numerical energy dissipation’. Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics. 2014. 44: 1325-1328. Shuenn-Yih Chang. Cited only by its retraction. Retracted September 2015:
The above article, published online on 17 November 2014 in Wiley Online Library (doi:10.1002/EQE.2515, vol. 44, issue 8, pages 1325–1328), has been retracted by agreement between the authors, the journal Editors, Anil K. Chopra, Peter Fajfar, Masayoshi Nakashima and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. The retraction has been agreed as this article is a duplicate of the version published on 4 November 2014 (doi: 10.1002/EQE.2514, vol. 44, issue 2, pages 325-328). The duplicate publication of this article was due to an administrative error on the part of the publishers. References to this article should cite the first published version (doi:10.1002/EQE.2514). The publishers wish to apologize for this error.
Author Shuenn-Yih Chang told us:
The publisher made a mistake to publish the short communications in the same volume but different number twice in Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics.
That is why a retraction was made.
3. Drying of a plasmid containing formulation: chitosan as a protecting agent. DARU Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. 2012. 20(29). Nasir Mohajel, Abdolhossein R. Najafabadi, Kayhan Azadmanesh, Alireza Vatanara, Mohsen Amini, Esmail Moazeni, Amirabbas Rahimi, and Kambiz Gilani. Cited only by its retraction (The non-retracted copy has been cited twice). Retracted April 2016:
This article [1] has been retracted by the publisher because it was republished in the journal [2] due to an error during the process of journal transfer between publishers. BioMed Central apologizes to the authors and to readers for this error and for any inconvenience caused.
4. Thermal and electrical energy yield analysis of a directly water cooled photovoltaic module. Thermal Science. 2015. 19: S547-S555. Busiso Mtunzi, Edison L. Meyer, Simon Michael. Cited only by its retraction. Retracted 2016:
Prof. Dr. Simeon Oka, Editor-in-chief of the journal THERMAL SCIENCE request that it is necessary to retract paper Thermal and electrical energy yield analysis of a directly water cooled photovoltaic module DOI:10.2298/TSCI130118144M by Mtunzi Busiso, Meyer Edson L., Michael Simon published in the journal Thermal Science, Vol. 20, Year 2016, No. 1, pp. 155-163 since, by technical error of the Editorial stuff, this paper has already been published in the journal THERMAL SCIENCE, Supplement 2, 2015, Vol. 19, pp. S547-S555.
First author Busiso Mtunzi at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa confirmed to us that the retraction was the result of a duplicate copy appearing in the journal.
Simeon Oka, editor-in-chief for Thermal Science, clarified that the journal retracted the second version of the paper:
All necessary data connected with our decision to retract this paper are given in the text. Due to our error this paper has been published two times. Paper has been retracted from one issue (later published), but not from issue in which paper has been published first time.
5. Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator Lead Extraction by Conventional Traction and Counter-Traction Technique. Korean Circulation Journal. 2011. 41: 164-166. Jong Sung Park, Hui-Nam Pak, Moon-Hyoung Lee, Sung Soon Kim, Boyoung Joung. Cited only by its retraction, according to Thomson Reuters Web of Science. Retracted January, 2016:
We deeply regret to report for retraction of the article entitled “Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator Lead Extraction by Conventional Traction and Counter-Traction Technique”. It has been published in duplicate in Volume 40(8), page 418-420) and Volume 41(3), page 164-166) due to the editorial error occurred in our journal.
With regard to this, we retract the article in Volume 41(3), page 164-166.
We apologize for the error made in the article and inconvenience it may have caused.
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