Journal editor retracts comments

The editor of the journal Fertility and Sterility (F&S) is retracting his statements that appeared in a February article by The Scientist in which he accused Korean authors of an F&S paper of plagiarizing another scientist's work and lying to the journal about it. In a letter on masthead from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (which publishes F&S), editor-in-chief Alan DeCherney apologized for "the distress and any reputational damage" his comments, which appeared in both The Scientist and the Los Angeles Times, may have caused. The letter is addressed to Kwang-Yul Cha, first author of the F&S paper, and was forwarded to The Scientist by Cha's spokesperson.In April, the British Medical Journal reported that a lawyer for Cha sent DeCherney a letter accusing him of making "false and defamatory statements" to The Scientist and the Los Angeles Times, which first reported the story.DeCherney did not respond to requests to confirm either the letter from Cha's lawyer or the letter containing his apology to Cha.In February, DeCherney censured Cha and his colleagues when he discovered that an identical paper to the one they published in F&S had appeared in a Korean journal under first author Jeong-Hwan Kim, whose name was not on the F&S paper. Kim claimed he had done most of the research reported in the two papers, which measured the mitochondrial DNA of women with premature ovarian cancer using polymerase chain reaction (PCR).In his comments to The Scientist, DeCherney accused the F&S authors of plagiarism, and said they "perjured themselves" when they signed a note saying they had not published the paper in any other journal.DeCherney also said he planned to add Kim's name as first author of the paper, but has yet to do so. In April, the ASRM retracted the paper. (The link to the abstract on Elsevier's Web site contains the word "Retracted.")DeCherney wrote in his letter to Cha that after checking his records he discovered that Kim's name was indeed included on the draft first submitted to the journal. "I am not aware of the circumstances that ultimately led to his exclusion from the list of authors," he wrote. DeCherney said he also uncovered two formal requests made in 2006 that Kim's name be added to the list of authors, but to which DeCherney never responded."Considering the facts of the matter, I consider my references to 'plagiarism' and 'perjury' to be inaccurate and regrettable. I hereby retract them and give you permission to forward this letter to the authors of both articles, and to their editors for their information," he wrote.A statement from Cha, sent via his spokesperson, said: "I think Dr. DeCherney made the right and honorable decision to retract his inaccurate and damaging comments. His apology is accepted." Cha did not say whether or not he would pursue legal action against DeCherney.Kim told The Scientist that he is "really disappointed" in DeCherney's decision, and in the failure of Fertility and Sterility to add his name to the author list of the 2005 paper. DeCherney hasn't returned Kim's calls or Emails since July 2006, Kim added. Kim is currently suing both Cha and Sook-Hwan Lee -second author of the 2005 paper --accusing them of stealing his research. Andrea Gawrylewski mail@the-scientist.comAlison McCook contributed reporting to this article.Links within this article:A. McCook, "Fertility journal censures scientists," The Scientist, February 20, 2007. http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/52859/K.Y. Cha et al, "Quantification of mitochondrial DNA using real-time polymerase chain reaction in patients with premature ovarian failure," Fertility and Sterility, December 2005. http://www.the-scientist.com/pubmed/16359970A. McCook, "New details in Korean plagiarism case," The Scientist, April 10, 2006. http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53061A. McCook, "Controversial fertility paper retracted," The Scientist, April 27, 2007. http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53170/Elsevier: Retraction notice http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0015-0282(05)03333-9

Journal editor retracts comments

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