Pakistan university’s pharmacy department chair notches two retractions

Kashif Barkat, who heads the Department of Pharmacy at the University of Lahore in Punjab, Pakistan, has had two of his studies retracted and two more corrected, all for issues related to images in the papers. Several more of his studies are flagged on PubPeer for similar reasons. 

According to the retraction notice for one of the retracted articles, which appeared in  Polymer Bulletin in 2020, Barkat does not agree with the journal’s decision to pull the paper. 

The paper, “Understanding mechanical characteristics of pH-responsive PEG 4000-based polymeric network for colorectal carcinoma: its acute oral toxicity study,” has been cited three times so far, according to Clarivate’s Web of Science. 

The retraction note, issued in June, reads: 

The Editors-in-Chief have retracted this article. After publication, concerns were raised regarding highly similar areas between the group I and II images in Fig. 11 representing stomach, lung and intestine tissues. In addition, the heart group II and intestine both group images appear highly similar to Fig. 10 heart I and intestine II images, respectively, in [1].

The Editors-in-Chief therefore no longer have confidence in the presented data.

Kashif Barkat does not agree to this retraction. The other authors have not responded to any correspondence from the editor or publisher about this retraction.

Barkat has not responded to our request for comment. 

The other retraction for Barkat is of a 2022 paper published in BioMed Research International. The study, “Polyvinylpyrrolidone K-30-Based Crosslinked Fast Swelling Nanogels: An Impeccable Approach for Drug’s Solubility Improvement,” has been cited nine times, according to Clarivate’s Web of Science. 

Here’s the retraction notice, dated January 9: 

This article has been retracted by Hindawi, as publisher, following an investigation undertaken by the publisher [1]. This investigation has uncovered evidence of systematic manipulation of the publication and peer-review process. We cannot, therefore, vouch for the reliability or integrity of this article.

Please note that this notice is intended solely to alert readers that the peer-review process of this article has been compromised.

Wiley and Hindawi regret that the usual quality checks did not identify these issues before publication and have since put additional measures in place to safeguard research integrity.

We wish to credit our Research Integrity and Research Publishing teams and anonymous and named external researchers and research integrity experts for contributing to this investigation.

The corresponding author, as the representative of all authors, has been given the opportunity to register their agreement or disagreement to this retraction. We have kept a record of any response received.

For the two corrected articles, Barkat and his colleagues acknowledge errors in the published images but that those mistakes did not affect the main conclusions of the work. 

One correction, issued by the Journal of Applied Polymer Science in June, was for a 2017 study published by Barkat and colleagues, titled “Oxaliplatin-loaded crosslinked polymeric network of chondroitin sulfate-co-poly(methacrylic acid) for colorectal cancer: Its toxicological evaluation.” That paper has been cited 48 times.

The other corrigendum, issued in January 2023 by Frontiers in Chemistry, was for a 2022 paper titled, “Chitosan/Xanthan Gum based hydrogels as potential carrier for an antiviral drug: Fabrication, characterization, and safety evaluation,” cited 88 times.

At the end of the corrigendum, Frontiers in Chemistry published a separate note, which reads: 

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

In addition to these four, 10 other studies coauthored by Barkat are being discussed on PubPeer.

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