Category: Spine

You’ve been dupe’d: Nice data — let’s see them again

As we’ve said before, with hundreds of retractions per year, there are simply too many for us to cover individually.

So from time to time we’ll compile a list of retractions that appeared relatively straightforward, just for record-keeping purposes.

Often, these seemingly straightforward retractions involve duplications, in which authors — accidentally or on purpose — republish their own work elsewhere.

Sometimes journals and authors blame this event on “poor communication,” our first example notes:

Continue reading You’ve been dupe’d: Nice data — let’s see them again

Authors retract surgery study that claimed to be randomized but wasn’t

spine-coverThe authors of a study about spinal fusion surgery have retracted it after realizing the cohort study was described as a prospective, randomized trial. 

The last author told us he believed the incorrect wording was added to the paper — and the title — by accident. Even though he said the journal Spine suggested correcting it, the authors chose to retract the paper entirely.

The abstract of the study describes the design as a:

Prospective, randomized, controlled trial.

But according to the retraction notice for “Prospective, randomized, controlled trial of silicate-substituted calcium phosphate versus rhBMP-2 in a minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion,” the abstract was not accurate:

Continue reading Authors retract surgery study that claimed to be randomized but wasn’t