The Editor-in-Chief of Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders officially retracts the article entitled, “Prediction of Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy to Asymptomatic Obstructive Coronary Artery Disease in Chinese Type 2 Diabetes Individuals: An Exploratory Study: by Jian-Bo Zhou, Xiao-Rong Zhu, Wei Zhao, Lu Yin, Hong-Bing Li, Lu Qi, and Jin-Kui Yang (Metab Syndr Relat Disord, 17(7):2019;367–373; doi: 10.1089/met.2018.0140).
The Publisher and Editor of the journal received an email from Professor Jin-Kui Yang, MD, PhD, from the Beijing Diabetes Institute, Department of Endocrinology, Beijing Tongren Hospital / Capital Medical University in Beijing, China, indicating that he had been falsely and unknowingly added as a coauthor of the published article by the lead author, Dr. Jian-Bo Zhou. Dr. Yang also stated that fabricated data exists in the article.
Upon receipt of the complaint, the journal asked Dr. Zhou to submit the original data from which the article was derived so that it could be independently evaluated, as well as detailed documentation on the specific contributions of all named authors. Dr. Zhao responded with the following message (in full):
“Could you retract this article entitled “Prediction of Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy to Asymptomatic Obstructive Coronary Artery Disease in Chinese Type 2 Diabetes Individuals: An Exploratory Study,” (2019:17(7):367–373; DOI: 10.1089/met.2018.0140).
I apologized for this process.” [sic]
No other responses or details were provided in Dr. Zhou's message.
Since the original data was not supplied as requested, and in view of Dr. Zhou's response, all coauthors listed on the paper were notified via email of the decision to retract the paper, utilizing the email addresses provided to the journal at the time of original submission. No responses were received.
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