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EDITORIAL |
Received April 2, 2006;
accepted for publication April 2, 2006.
On December 23, 2005, Dr. Curt I. Civin, editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed scientific journal STEM CELLS®, published on the Journal’s website an Expression of Concern about one of its published papers after learning that it contained questionable, and possibly fraudulent, images [1].
The paper, entitled, Effects of Type IV Collagen and Laminin on the Cryopreservation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells [2], was co-authored by Sun Jong Kim, Jong Hyuk Park, Jeoung Eun Lee, Jin Mee Kim, Jung Bok Lee, Shin Yong Moon, Sung Il Roh, Chul Geun Kim, and Hyun Soo Yoon, and published in November, 2004.
Since publishing the Expression of Concern, the Journal’s senior editors have carefully assessed information derived during a scientific inquiry of fraud conducted by the Seoul National University [3], among other institutions, and have concluded that the STEM CELLS paper in question does not rise to a reasonable standard of credibility. In particular, the multiple internally duplicated photomicrographs that appeared in the STEM CELLS publication [2] and those that were externally duplicated in other papers from some of the same authors [4, 5] are, at best, a graphic indication of unacceptable scientific record keeping and reporting or, at worst, fraudulent.
The Journal’s senior editors asked the authors to explain the duplicate photographs in the STEM CELLS publication. The authors acknowledged that photographs were duplicates, apologized for these errors, and submitted replacements; they asked that the Journal publish these as a Corregium. Taken in the context of the conclusions of the Seoul National University investigation which found that deliberate fraud was committed by some of these same authors in two papers published in the journal SCIENCE [3], this explanation strained credibility. The senior editors therefore diligently requested that an investigation be conducted by MizMedi Hospital, Seoul, South Korea, the institution wherein the bulk of the research was conducted and from whence the original manuscript was submitted. Unfortunately, no such investigation has occurred, now perhaps thwarted by ongoing investigations by the South Korean Prosecutor’s office.
Although more may be learned by additional investigations, the Journal’s senior editors have decided herewith to editorially retract this STEM CELLS paper by Kim, et al., since we cannot conceive of learning anything further that would convince us, with any degree of confidence, to maintain its data and interpretations in the scientific literature as presumptively authentic.
As we wrote earlier, "The currency of science is the peer-reviewed and peer-accepted manuscript that is ‘backed by a gold standard’ of scientific integrity and scrupulous honesty. Anything that tarnishes this ‘gold standard’ threatens to devalue the worth of scientific currency. Ultimately, society itself suffers because scientific advancement prepares the way for societal progress" [1].
We echo what Dr. Donald Kennedy, editor-in-chief of SCIENCE, recently wrote when that journal retracted two papers by some of the same authors of the STEM CELLS paper. We, too, regret "the time that the peer reviewers and others spent evaluating these papers as well as the time and resources that the scientific community may have spent trying to replicate these results" [6].
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  C. I. Civin Troublesome Questions Stem Cells, June 1, 2006; 24(6): 1411 - 1411. [Full Text] [PDF]
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