A Hindawi journal has retracted two 2013 papers by a group of stem cell researchers in China over issues with the images in the articles, bringing their count to three.
Here’s the notice for “Side-by-Side comparison of the biological characteristics of human umbilical cord and adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells,” by Lili Chen and colleagues from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan:
The article is one of four other articles [2–5] published by the same group of authors in 2012 and 2013. It was found to contain duplicated figures and data, where some of the cytokine expression data presented in Table 1 of [2] are repeated in Table 3 of [1], Table 1 of [4], and Table 1 of [5]. Details of the figure duplication are as follows:
1. Figure 2 (a1 – a4) in [1] are the same as Figure 1d in [2] and Figure 2E in [3].
2. Figure 4 (a1, b1) in [1] are the same as Figures 2F and 2G in [3] and Figure 3 and 4 in [4].
3. Figure 6a in [1] is the same as Figure 2H in [3], but rotated, and Figure 2a in [2].
4. Figure 2 (b1, b3) in [1] are the same as the 1st and 3rd panel of Figure 2 in [5].
5. Figure 1a in [1] is the same as Figure 2B in [3].
The authors apologize for these errors and agree to the retraction of the article. The author’s institution investigated our concerns and concluded that these errors were not the result of academic misconduct. The article is being retracted with the agreement of the journal and the editorial board due to concerns regarding the reliability of the data.
Here’s the list of references:
- L. Hu, J. Hu, J. Zhao et al., “Side-by-Side Comparison of the Biological Characteristics of Human Umbilical Cord and Adipose Tissue-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells,” BioMed Research International, vol. 2013, Article ID 438243, 12 pages, 2013.
- J. Zhao, L. Hu, J. Liu, N. Gong, and L. Chen, “The Effects of Cytokines in Adipose Stem Cell-Conditioned Medium on the Migration and Proliferation of Skin Fibroblasts In Vitro,” BioMed Research International, vol. 2013, Article ID 578479, 11 pages, 2013.
- L. Hu, J. Zhao, J. Liu, N. Gong, and L. Chen, “Effects of adipose stem cell-conditioned medium on the migration of vascular endothelial cells, fibroblasts and keratinocytes,” Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 701–706, 2013.
- J. J. Zhao, L. Hu, J. R. Liu, N. Y. Gong, and L. L. Chen, “Adipose stem cell-derived growth factors and proliferation of oral mucosa fibroblasts,” Journal of Clinical Rehabilitative Tissue Engineering Research, vol. 17, no. 32, pp. 5778–5784, 2013.
- J. Hu, L. Huiyu, and O. Weixiang, Isolation, Characterization and Induced Differentiation of Human Umbilical Cord Wharton’s Jelly-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells, CNKI, 2012, http://en.cnki.com.cn/Article_en/CJFDTOTAL-TJYX201205006.htm
The second paper was titled “The effects of cytokines in adipose stem cell-conditioned medium on the migration and proliferation of skin fibroblasts in vitro.” The bulk of the notice is similar, with the detail stating:
a. Figure 1d in [1] is the same as Figure 2 (a1 – a4) in [2] and Figure 2E in [3].
b. Figure 2a in [1] is the same as Figure 6a in [2] and Figure 2H in [3], but rotated.
Matt Hodgkinson, the head of editorial policy and ethics for Hindawi, told us:
Issues with the results were initially raised by the authors in 2016 about one of the articles and we published a corrigendum after consulting the board. The authors later raised further concerns at the end of 2018, saying they had inadvertently duplicated some figures and results, and they asked to correct both articles. We were also later contacted by a claimant regarding these articles. We further investigated and found additional duplications, and after consulting our board again we decided needed to retract both articles. The authors agreed to the retractions and we also asked the institution to formally investigate.
I am not aware of any other pending corrections or retractions. There was an earlier retraction in 2016 due to lack of reproducibility, which was said to be due to selecting inappropriate cell lines: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5114541/. A 2016 correction was made to the figure of a PLOS Pathogens article; the nature of the error was unexplained, but the publisher apologized: https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1005406
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