Emphasis on rigorous standards - clarification on recent retraction notice

Article information

Korean J Anesthesiol. 2023;76(5):395-396

Publication date (electronic) : 2023 August 10

doi : https://doi.org/10.4097/kja.23596

Younsuk Lee

Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Dongguk University Ilsan Hospital, Goyang, Korea

Corresponding author: Younsuk Lee, M.D., Ph.D. Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Dongguk University Ilsan Hospital, 27 Donggukro, Ilsandong-gu, Goyang 10326, Korea Tel: +82-31-961-7872 Fax: +82-31-787-7864 Email: ylee@dgu.ac.kr

Received 2023 August 3; Accepted 2023 August 8.

In scientific research, upholding integrity and adhering to rigorous standards are of utmost importance. However, errors or misconduct can occasionally lead to retractions. It is with profound regret that we address a recent case of retraction, wherein the trust in a published study was found to be misplaced.

During the summer of 2022, the Korean Journal of Anesthesiology (KJA) published an article [1] titled "Comparison of the clinical performance of the i-gel^TM, LMA Supreme^TM, and Ambu AuraGain^TM in adult patients during general anesthesia: a prospective and randomized study," authored by Lakshmi et al. As the Editor-in-Chief of KJA, I take full responsibility for the misleading nature of this publication.

A group of international readers initially raised concerns regarding specific values presented by the authors as oropharyngeal leak pressures, which were clinically implausible despite their statistical significance. The authors acknowledged that this was a simple typographical error and provided corrected values. However, the repetition and discussion of the problem in the abstract, tables, and main text raised concerns that the gravity of the situation extended beyond mere value replacement.

To address this matter meticulously, I requested the authors to submit the original data and conducted a comprehensive reanalysis of all reported values. This analysis revealed numerous errors ranging from apparent mistakes to minor inaccuracies resulting from rounding.¹ Although there was no evidence of deliberate misconduct or manipulation, it is crucial to acknowledge that in the realm of medical publications, whether honest errors or misconduct, can adversely affect readers and eventually compromise patient safety. The gravity of these errors warrants decisive action beyond the customary practice of issuing an erratum or corrigendum for the original article.

This retraction does not imply any violation of research ethics by the authors. Instead, it pertains solely to substandard writing that cannot be rectified through simple error correction. We identified some of these errors during the peer review and publication processes of the paper. Oversight by the KJA played a partial role in publishing a manuscript with multiple errors. We sincerely apologize to the readers of KJA for the need to retract this article.

We are wholeheartedly committed to implementing more stringent standards and adopting a meticulous approach in our review process to ensure that readers meet only the papers in our journal selected through rigorous screening.

Finally, we extend our gratitude to Elisabeth Hoerner (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5907-8548) and Lukas Gasteiger (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4659-9114) from Austria, and Christian Keller (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4779-2928) from Switzerland for their invaluable efforts to bring this issue to our attention.