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Medical Journal Retractions: A Transparency Issue

Interesting case study raised by the Retraction Watch blog.

A 2009 journal article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) — promoted in a news release by the journal and picked up by many news organizations — has now been retracted by the authors. But the journal issued no news release about the retraction — an issue of transparency that the RW blog raises. And you can guess how much news coverage the retraction will get.

And this was all over a molecule that could supposedly “make breast tumors respond to a drug to which they’re not normally susceptible” — as the RW blog put it. But it was also a molecule, RW points out, that wasn’t even in clinical trials yet.

He or she who lives by the journal news release risks one’s long-term credibility.

*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*

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