Several sports physicians at Harvard have earned two retractions and await another after publishing work based on “unreliable” survey data that was misrepresented in the papers.
The articles, “Running-related injuries in middle school cross-country runners: Prevalence and characteristics of common injuries” and “Prevalence and factors associated with bone stress injury in middle school runners,” were published in the journal of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, PM&R, in 2021. The papers have been cited a total of 17 times since publication, according to Clarivate’s Web of Science.
Identical retraction notices issued in November this year state the decision followed “a joint review by the authors’ institutions which identified the dataset of this article to be unreliable and not accurately represented in the paper.” The institutions did not find the authors to be responsible for the problematic data, but recommended the papers be retracted, according to the notices. Several of the authors are affiliated with Harvard Medical School, which did not respond to a request for comment.
In an email to Retraction Watch, Adam Tenforde, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and a physician at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, a part of Mass General Brigham, wrote that the authors supported the decision to retract “as our goal is to advance science with accurate data.”
Tenforde, who serves as senior editor for PM&R, added the group is anticipating a third retraction from the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and is preparing an editorial to accompany the retraction.
All three papers rely on online surveys sent to a database of 900 coaches, runners, and parents of middle school runners in Massachusetts and surrounding states. None list a funding source. The two retracted papers indicate the original research was conducted at Spaulding.
In response to a request for details on the retraction, a media relations officer at the hospital wrote:
We are committed to preserving the highest standards of biomedical research and fostering scientific innovation. Any questions, concerns or allegations regarding research conducted at Spaulding are confidentially assessed per hospital policy and federal regulations.
PM&R journal editor Janna Friedly wrote:
Any specific questions about the data or how they discovered that the data was erroneous would best be answered by the authors and/or the institution.
JAND journal editor Linda Snetselaar and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation have not responded to a request for comment.
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