A genetics journal from a leading scientific publisher has retracted 17 articles from China, in what is believed to be the largest mass withdrawal from academic research due to human rights concerns.
The articles were published in Molecular Genetics & Genomic Medicine (MGGM), a genetics journal published by the American academic publisher Wiley. The papers were withdrawn on February 12 following an agreement between the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Suzanne Hart, and the publishing company. In a review process that took more than two years, investigators found “inconsistencies” between the research and the consent documentation provided by researchers.
The papers by different scientists are all based on research using DNA samples taken from populations in China. In several cases, the researchers used samples from populations considered by experts and human rights campaigners to be vulnerable to exploitation and repression in China, leading to concerns that they would not be able to freely consent to such samples being taken.
Several of the researchers are associated with public security authorities in China, a fact that “destroys any notion of free informed consent,” said Yves Moreau, an engineering professor at the University of Leuven in Belgium who focuses on DNA analysis. . Moreau did not raise concerns about the papers with Hart, MGGM’s editor-in-chief, until March 2021.
One withdrawn paper studies the DNA of Tibetans in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, using blood samples collected from 120 individuals. The article stated that “all individuals provided written informed consent” and that work was approved by the Fudan University ethics committee.
But the retraction notice published Monday said an ethics review “revealed inconsistencies between the consent documentation and the research reported; the documentation was not sufficiently detailed to resolve the concerns raised”.
Xie Jianhui, the corresponding author of the study, is from the department of forensic medicine at Fudan University in Shanghai. Xie did not respond to a request for comment, but the retraction notice said Xie and his co-authors disagreed with the retraction.
Several of Xie’s co-authors are affiliated with the public security authorities in China, including the Tibetan public security authorities. Tibet is considered one of the most heavily guarded and strictly monitored regions in China. In Human Rights Watch’s most recent annual reportthe campaign group said the authorities were “imposing severe restrictions on freedom of religion, expression, movement and assembly”.
Another one of those study withdrawn used blood samples from 340 Uyghur individuals in Kashgar, a city in Xinjiang, to study the genetic links between them and Uyghurs from other regions. The scientists said the data would be a resource for “forensic DNA and population genetics”.
The retracted papers were all published between 2019 and 2021. In 2021, after Moreau expressed concern about the newspapers in MGGM, eight of the magazine’s 25 editors resigned. The journal’s editor-in-chief, Hart, remained in her post. Hart and MGGM did not respond to a request for comment.
MGGM is considered by some to be a mid-range genetics publication. It has an impact factor of 2.473, placing it roughly in the top 40% of journals. It is considered a relatively easy forum for publication, which may have been a draw for Chinese researchers looking to publish in English-language journals, said David Curtis, a professor of genetics at University College London. Curtis resigned from his post as editor-in-chief from Annals of Human Genetics, another Wiley journal, after the publisher vetoed boycotting Chinese science over ethical concerns, including those related to DNA collection.
MGGM states that its scope is human, molecular and medical genetics. It mainly publishes studies on the medical applications of genetics, such as a recent paper on genetic disorders associated with hearing loss. The sudden pivot toward publishing forensic genetics research from China came as other forensic genetics journals faced more investigation for publishing research based on DNA samples from vulnerable minorities in China, Moreau said. He argues that this may have driven more controversial research to mid-ranked journals such as MGGM that do not specialize in forensic genetics.
On its information page, MGGM states that it “does not consider studies involving forensic genetic analysis”. This warning was added in 2023, following an editorial review of the magazine’s aims.
In recent years, there has been increasing scrutiny of research using DNA or other biometric data from individuals in China, particularly those from vulnerable populations. In 2023Elsevier, a Dutch academic publisher, retracted a paper based on blood and saliva samples from Uyghur and Kazakh people living in Xinjiang, a region in northwestern China where there are also widespread reports of human rights abuses.
The Wiley withdrawals come days before a Chinese government deadline require universities to submit lists of all academic articles retracted in the past three years. According to an analysis by Nature, nearly 14,000 retraction notices were published last year, three-quarters of which involved a Chinese co-author.
A Wiley spokesperson said: “We continue to learn from this case, and collaboration with international colleagues is valuable in developing our policy.
“Investigations involving multiple papers, stakeholders and institutions require significant effort, and often involve delays in coordinating and analyzing information across all stakeholders, as well as translating material. We recognize that this takes a significant amount of time, but we always aim to act as quickly as possible.”
In recent years, China has surpassed the EU and the US in terms of total research output, and the impact of its research is also catching up with output from the US.
