The corresponding author asked the Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics to retract an article that found popular pain medicines can curb growth in rats, in light of an unresolved authorship dispute.
The article, “Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Cause Inhibition of the Growth Plate in Cultured Rat Metatarsal Bones,” details preliminary results that indicate nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) may reduce growth in rat bones in a dose-dependent manner, suggesting caution in treating chronic inflammatory diseases in children. The editor told us the paper was “highly rated” by reviewers and the results were “never in question,” but the senior author asked to pull the paper after failing to resolve a dispute with a researcher who asked to be added as an author.
According to the notice:
At the request of the authors, the Editors and Publisher retract the article “Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Cause Inhibition of the Growth Plate in Cultured Rat Metatarsal Bones” by Park et al, published ahead of print on July 2, 2015 in the Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics. The corresponding author, Hyun Woo Kim, MD, has requested retraction of this report due to unresolvable issues regarding authorship. The veracity of the content has not been questioned.
The article hasn’t yet been indexed by Thomson Reuters Web of Science.
Robert N. Hensinger, Co-Editor of the journal, gave us some more backstory:
The paper was from Korea and as a consequence my information is derived entirely from the author’s emails. The paper underwent a successful peer review process and was highly rated. After the authors completed the recommended revisions, the paper was accepted for publication. Apparently, a researcher who had worked in the senior author’s laboratory believed that he should receive credit and be included as author. The senior author was unable to resolve this issue and requested the paper be withdrawn. This was unfortunate as this paper contained interesting preliminary observations. The results and findings of the research were never in question. In fact, the original presentation had received a research awards at our national meeting.
We’ve contacted the corresponding author, Hyun Woo Kim at Yonsei University College of Medicine, for more information and will update with any new developments.
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