We’ve found another retraction for Shigeaki Kato, number seven on our leaderboard.
Our count for Kato has now risen to 39; we added five retraction notices to our count for Kato last month. These notices follow an investigation at the University of Tokyo, where Kato used to work, which found 43 papers contained “likely altered or forged materials,” according to a 2013 news article from The Asahi Shimbun.
Here’s the retraction note for “1alpha,25(OH)2D3-induced DNA methylation suppresses the human CYP271B1 gene,” published in Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology:
This article has been retracted at the request of the Authors.
It has come to the attention of the corresponding author that Figures 2 and 4 have been manipulated. The authors take responsibility for them and apologize to the readership of Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology.
The paper — which explored how the body regulates expression of an enzyme that helps synthesize vitamin D — was published in 2007 and has been cited 53 times, according to Thomson Reuters Web of Science.
Our total count for Kato is now at 39 retractions, two corrections, and one expression of concern. He had two other expressions of concern, which turned into two of the 39 retractions.
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Wow. he’s had more papers retracted than I’ve had published (by far!). Mind you I actually did the work in mind so that is something. I wonder what the response is from the people he has worked with all these years. Where they surprised? It would be interesting to hear from his previous co-workers to see what they think of this. Hopefully any students that worked with him did not suffer too much from all of this….