Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2018 February, 244(2), 175.

Retraction

Retraction: Nucleophagy in Human Disease: Beyond the Physiological Role. [Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2018, 244 (1), 75-81. doi: 10.1620/tjem.244.75. Review.]

MING ZHOU,¹ HONGWEN JI,² NIAN FU,³ LINXI CHEN⁴ and YONG XIA⁵

¹Department of Hematology, Hunan Provincial People's Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China
²Department of Anesthesiology, Transfusion Medicine, Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
³Department of Gastroenterology, Affiliated Nanhua Hospital, University of South China, Hengyang, China
⁴Institute of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, Hunan Province Cooperative Innovation Center for Molecular Target New Drug Study, University of South China, Hengyang, China
⁵Affiliated Hospital of Xiangnan University, Chenzhou, China

Correspondence: Yong Xia, Affiliated Hospital of Xiangnan University, 25 Renming Road, Chenzhou 423000, Hunan Province, China.
Published online February 22, 2018; doi: 10.1620/tjem.244.175.

Retraction Notice
Retracted Review article: Nucleophagy in Human Disease: Beyond the Physiological Role. [Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2018, 244 (1), 75-81. doi: 10.1620/tjem.244.75.]
The above Review article was published online on January 27, 2018. Soon after its publication (on February 1, 2018), Dr. Nian Fu and Prof. Linxi Chen informed the Editor-in-Chief, The Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine (TJEM), about serious violation of publication ethics. Indeed, Dr. Nian Fu and Prof. Linxi Chen were astonished to find their names as coauthors of this Review article, because they were not involved in the submission process of this Review article and they do not know any of other coauthors. In addition, the Review article is similar to their unpublished manuscript.
After a thoroughinvestigation in accordance with the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Editor-in-Chief of TJEM decided to retract this Review article. The reasons for Retraction are summarized below: forged authors and an unexpected case of plagiarism.
Forged authors: Dr. Nian Fu and Prof. Linxi Chen were added as co-authors of the Review article without their knowledge. In fact, the signature provided by Prof. Linxi Chen is apparently different from the signature of a coauthor, named Linxi Chen, on the AUTHORS' RESPONSIBILITY FORM, provided by the corresponding author of the Review article. More critically, the signature provided by Dr. Nian Fu is completely different from the signature of Nian Fu, because the Chinese characters are different between the two signatures. In addition, the replies from three authors (Ming Zhou, Hongwen Ji and Yong Xia) clearly indicate that they misunderstand the identity of Dr. Nina Fu. We also attempted to contact two authors, named Nian Fu and Linxi Chen, via e-mail. As expected, the forged authors did not respond to our inquiries, despite that their e-mail addresses appear to be active.
An unexpected case of plagiarism: This Review article is similar to the unpublished manuscript prepared by Dr. Nian Fu and Prof. Linxi Chen. Moreover, two figures used in the Review article are identical to the preliminary figures of their unpublished manuscript. According to Dr. Nian Fu, a local agency for language editing had transferred their unpublished manuscript to a third party. Unfortunately, the check system of TJEM is not effective for plagiarism of unpublished materials. We believe that the corresponding author of the Review article included the names of the original two authors to avoid the criticism of plagiarism. Eventually, the corresponding author agreed to retract the Review article.
We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this retraction to readers. We also hope that the publication of the plagiarized Review article will not trouble Dr. Nian Fu and Prof. Linxi Chen too much.

© 2018 Tohoku University Medical Press

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Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2018, 244, 175

Correspondence: Shigeki Shibahara, M.D., Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief, The Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine