Title: Concise Review: Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Neurodegenerative Diseases
What Caught Our Attention: Everyone makes mistakes — but some are more amusing than others. In one recent correction, the publisher (Wiley) admitted to including a proofreader’s query in the published manuscript. But didn’t say what the query was.
We looked around, and think we found the added notes in the abstract on the PubMed entry (emphasis ours):
Indeed, various advantageous effects were reported following human MSCs transplantation into rodent models of neurodegenerative diseases, such as neurotrophic factor-mediated protection, enhanced neurogenesis, modulation of inflammation, and abnormal protein aggregate clearance. Per journal style, most nonstandard abbreviations must be used at least two times in the abstract to be retained; NTF was used once and thus has been deleted. Recent studies have also used ex vivo manipulation for enhanced expression of potentially favorable factors, by so exploiting the homing capacity of MSCs for effective expression at the lesion site.
So the proofreaders caught the extra abbreviation but not this extra sentence? Like we said, mistakes happen (researchers also occasionally forget to delete their notes). Publishers aren’t known for admitting mistakes, making this correction notice boldly titled “Publisher’s Apology” refreshing to see.
Journal: Stem Cells
Authors: Rotem Volkman, Daniel Offen
Affiliations: Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., apologizes for the inclusion of a proofreader’s query in the final published version of the concise review “Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Neurodegenerative Diseases”. The error occurred during the production process and was a result of an oversight during final review of the article. The inaccurate statement appeared in the abstract, which has been corrected in the online version of the article.
Date of Article: June 2017
Times Cited, according to Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science: Zero
Date of Notice: September 12, 2017
Like Retraction Watch? Consider making a tax-deductible contribution to support our growth. You can also follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, add us to your RSS reader, sign up on our homepage for an email every time there’s a new post, or subscribe to our daily digest. Click here to review our Comments Policy. For a sneak peek at what we’re working on, click here. If you have comments or feedback, you can reach us at [email protected].
According to the late Professor Paolo Bianco MSCs do not exist. He is correct, these cells are preosteoblastic, but not osteoblastic, perivascular cells. Friedensteins work, and others, showed this decades ago.
Sheesh, they can’t call them “manuscript editors”?