Abstract
The following article has been retracted at the request of the Journal Editor and Sage:
Srivastava R, Jayant RD, Chaudhary A, McShane MJ. “Smart Tattoo” glucose biosensors and effect of coencapsulated anti-inflammatory agents. J Diabetes Sci Technol. 2011;5(1):76-85. doi: 10.1177/193229681100500111
Sage was contacted by a reader with concerns about potential image duplication and unattributed overlap to another publication. Sage was also alerted to a conversation on
Concerns were raised about the following figures in the article:
a) Figure 1A contains signs of in-image duplicate and appears highly similar to Figure 1A [1].
b) Figure 6, images labelled Plain MS, Day 7 and Day 28, appear highly similar to Figure 4, 1A and 1B [1].
c) Figure 6, images labelled Dexamethasone-loaded MS, Day 7 and Day 28, appear highly similar to Figure 4, 1C and 1D [1].
d) Figure 6, images labelled Dexamethasone-loaded MS, Day 7 and Day 28, appear highly similar to Figure 4, 1C and 1D [1].
e) Figure 6, images labelled Diclofenac-loaded MS, Day 7 and Day 28, appears highly similar to Figure 5, 1C and 1D [1].
f) Figure 7A, image labelled Plain GOx Sensor, Day 7, appears highly similar to Figure 4, 2B [1].
g) Figure 7A, image labelled Plain GOx Sensor, Day 28, appears highly similar to Figure 4, 2A [1].
h) Figure 7C, image labelled GOx sensor + dexamethasone, Day 7, appears highly similar to Figure 4, 2D [1].
i) Figure 7C, image labelled GOx sensor + dexamethasone, Day 28, appears highly similar to Figure 4, 2C [1].
j) Figure 7D, images labelled GOx sensor + diclofenac, Day 7 and Day 28, appear highly similar to Figure 5, 2C and 2D [1].
The article also contains substantial unreferenced overlap:
a) Figure 4A and 4B duplicates data from Figure 2, split across two figures [1].
b) Data for ‘Uncoated MS’, Figure 5, contains some of the same data as Figure 3 [1].
c) Unattributed text overlap with other articles [1], [2], [3] by the same author group.
The authors were unable to provide the uncropped raw images and raw data underlying the figures.
The authors acknowledged the reuse of images in Figure 1A, Figure 6, Figure 7A/C/D and explained that any text overlap was due to an error. The authors requested to correct the article with appropriate attribution.
The Journal Editor evaluated the response and deemed the articles to contain significant overlap and image duplication. Because of the unresolved concerns about the image integrity that call into question the validity of the findings the Journal Editor and Sage retracts the article.
R. S. disagreed with the decision to retract. The remaining authors did not respond when notified.
1. Jayant RD, McShane MJ, Srivastava R. In vitro and in vivo evaluation of anti-inflammatory agents using nanoengineered alginate carriers: towards localized implant inflammation suppression. Int J Pharm. 2011 Jan 17;403 (1–2): 268-75.
2. Chaudhary A, Harma H, Hanninen P, McShane MJ, Srivastava R. Glucose response of near-infrared alginate-based microsphere sensors under dynamic reversible conditions. Diabetes Technol Ther. 2011 Aug;13(8):827-35.
3. Chaudhary A, Raina M, Harma H, Hanninen P, McShane MJ, Srivastava R. Evaluation of glucose sensitive affinity binding assay entrapped in fluorescent dissolved-core alginate microspheres. Biotechnol Bioeng. 2009 Dec 15;104(6): 1075-85.