A researcher in Bangladesh who fabricated a list of co-authors — and possibly her data, too — in a paper on dengue fever that was recently retracted has published the same article in a different journal.
In 2019, Farzana Ahmed was a pediatric intensivist at United Hospital Ltd, in Dhaka, when she published a study in the Journal of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University. Titled “Diagnostic value of ferritin for the severity of dengue infection in children,” the article described a study of:
conducted to evaluate whether the severity of dengue fever can be predicted by serum ferritin level or not. This prospective observational study was conducted during the endemic period of dengue fever in 2019. A total of 30 diagnosed cases of dengue fever who presented with bicytopenia during febrile phase of the disease were enrolled in this study. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was calculated to compare ferritin levels with lowest platelet count and highest hematocrit level and it showed that there was significant correlation. There was no difference between the lowest total count of white blood cell and serum ferritin level. The severity of dengue fever can be predicted by raised level of serum ferritin.
But Ahmed’s four co-authors complained to the journal that they had nothing to do with the study and that she’d not received ethics approval for the work — as stated in the article.
Mir Misbahuddin, the editor-in-chief of the journal, told us:
After publishing the paper in our journal, Dr. Nargis Ara Begum (second author) informed me that the data are fake and she did not know anything about the data. Even she did not know that her name was written in the manuscript. Then I talked to Dr. Farzana Ahmed and finally our journal decided to retract the paper.
The paper is marked retracted, albeit without any explanation.
Case closed. Case re-opened.
Misbahuddin told us that he was dismayed to see Ahmed’s name on an identical article in the Journal of Infectious Diseases & Therapy, which belongs to the Omics group of predatory journals. Here’s the abstract of the second paper, which appeared in 2020:
The study was conducted to evaluate whether the severity of dengue fever can be predicted by serum ferritin level or not. This prospective observational study was conducted during the endemic period of dengue fever in 2019. A total of 30 diagnosed cases of dengue fever who presented with bicytopenia during febrile phase of the disease were enrolled in this study. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was calculated to compare ferritin levels with lowest platelet count and highest hematocrit level and it showed that there was significant correlation. There was no difference between lowest total count of white blood cell and serum ferritin level. The severity of dengue fever can be predicted by raised level of serum ferritin.
The only difference between the two articles is that Ahmed’s affiliation is now Marks Medical College Hospital, where she is now head of the Department of Paediatrics and where she claims to have conducted the research. She also has another co-author, Aftab Yousuf Raj, of Square Hospitals Ltd. Raj, who did not respond to a request for comment, appears to be affiliated with Omics.
Ahmed, who also has not responded to requests for comment [see update], and Raj have published together before. In 2019, they shared authorship on this paper in the Journal of Pediatrics and Infants.
Misbahuddin said he has attempted to raise the duplicate publication with the Omics journal but has not received a response. He added that Ahmed told him that:
she conducted the same kind of study at different hospitals at the same time over the same number of populations of the same age group. I think she must mention
1) the name of those Hospitals for studies with the approval letters from the authorities,
2) She must have to show the protocol, ethical clearance from each hospital,
3) Signature of all authors of two published papers (one already retracted)
3) scan copies of all CASE REPORT FORMs filled-up with raw data (not EXCEL data) including cell phone number of each patient or parent (must be uploaded in Google drive or similar storage area for checking purpose whether the data are manipulated or wrong. We will help you to talk to all patients/parents by myself using cell phone number that must be present in the CRF, if she provide
4) Plagiarism checking report of both retracted and published paper
4) Source of funding
5) Her present working place
Update, 0000 UTC, 9/4/20: Ahmed tells us:
I had collected data from 2 hospitals at the same time on the same topic on the same number of populations of the same age group.
Before doing research work at PICU (Paediatric Intensive care unit) of the United Hospital Ltd., I took written permission from Dr. Moshiur Rahman, Senior consultant & Incharge of PICU of United Hospital Ltd.( www.uhlbd.com › consultant › moshiur-rahman ) As the In-charge Physician gave me permission, I had started to collect data, and submitted the article at BSMMU journal and that article had been published but later retracted because another consultant- Dr. Nargis Ara begum wanted to put her name as 1st author while i put her name as 2nd author and I did not waited to take permission from ethical board of the united hospital. I made a mistake for not taking permission from the ethical board of the united hospital ; I have an explanation for that. In 2019, dengue was endemic and everyday lots of children were dying of Dengue fever at Dhaka, Bangladesh. My little observational study could save lives.
As that article had been retracted, the editor Prof. Mir Misbahuddin informed me that that article does not exist anymore as it had been retracted.
Regarding the data that I got from another hospital on the same characteristics of population; I used to work at that hospital and before I left, I took permission from the hospital authority to collect data for observational study. Everything had been done genuinely. This research has no relationship with any other research work. I don’t have any idea how anyone can compare it to any publication which does not exist anymore. This article had been peer reviewed, plagarithm checked by the journal committee and was published.
He said he will send us a scanned copy of the “hospital authority’s letter.”
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What is really disturbing about these instances of faking data are the potential consequences for patients. Supposedly, these pediatricians [ I am assuming that they were medically trained] took an oath to ‘do no harm’ when they graduated from medical school. It is bad enough that the scientific record is besmirched, but the potential issues that these bad papers can cause for clinical practice is worrisome. That said, hopefully these predatory journals do not get read by many and this lessens the negative impact of these works.
I strongly concur Aina. Potentially devastating but hopefully far less so.
Raj, who did not respond to a request for comment, appears to be affiliated with Omics
The presence of a Biography on the OMICS website might mean that Raj has joined the Editorial Board for one of their journals, but OMICS are not exactly reliable or scrupulous. All we can be sure of is that some time, OMICS asked Raj for a biography on some pretext or another.