A cancer researcher at the University of Cambridge in the UK has retracted a paper from Cell after commenters on PubPeer questioned aspects of 10 images in the article. Though an institutional investigation found the figures were "not reliable," another of the authors objected to the retraction as "an overreaction."
Steve Jackson, the University of Cambridge biology professor and lab leader, previously retracted three papers – including one in Nature and one in Science posted on the same day – after a Cambridge investigation found a co-author, Abderrahmane Kaidi, had falsified data.
The first author, Abdeladim Moumen, "declined to sign this retraction," according to the notice. " A thorough investigation conducted by the University of Cambridge concluded that no misconduct was established on my part or by any of the authors. The criticism leading to the retraction request was based solely on image comparison, alleging similarities between bands." – he said.
