What Caught Our Attention: Soon after the paper appeared, the journal was alerted to the fact its findings were at odds with others in the field. When the editor approached the authors, everything fell apart: The authors couldn’t repeat the experiments, and “were also unsure of the molecular probes that were used in the study.” While it isn’t unusual to have doubts about data — since since research is a process of experimentation — it is odd not to know how your experiment was conducted. The paper was retracted less than two months after it was published. The manuscript was accepted two months after it was submitted in early May, theoretically giving reviewers enough time to catch these issues (along with the authors’ failure to cite relevant papers).
Journal: DNA and Cell Biology
Authors: Hongjing Zhao, Yu Wang, Juanjuan Liu, Yizhi Shao, Jinglun Li, Hongliang Chai, and Mingwei Xing
Affiliations: Northeast Forestry University, People’s Republic of China
The Editor-in-Chief of DNA&CB, Dr. Carol Shoshkes Reiss, was alerted to a discrepancy between the findings in the article by Zhao et al. and those of others, about the absence of expression of ISG15 in chickens. Dr. Reiss requested from the authors a clarification in their observations and inquired about the failure to include relevant citations in the reference section of the paper.
Based on the response from the authors, it appeared that they did not have the confidence in the data as they were not able to repeat the experiments, and were also unsure of the molecular probes that were used in the study. Therefore, the Editor has determined that the paper should be officially retracted from DNA and Cell Biology.
Date of Article: August 2017
Times Cited, according to Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science: Article not indexed
Date of Notice: September 22, 2017
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