Rahim H, Sadiq A, Ullah R, et al. Int J Nanomedicine. 2020;15:8999–9009.
We, the Editors and Publisher of International Journal of Nanomedicine, have retracted the following article.
Following publication of the article, concerns were raised regarding the duplication of an image from Figure 3 with an image from an unrelated article. Specifically,
The TEM image for Figure 3B has been duplicated with the TEM image for Figure 3B from Rahim H, Sadiq A, Khan S, et al. Aceclofenac nanocrystals with enhanced in vitro, in vivo performance: formulation optimization, characterization, analgesic and acute toxicity studies. Drug Des Devel Ther. 2017;11:2443–2452. https://doi.org/10.2147/DDDT.S140626.
In addition, it also appears that features of the image presented in Figure 3B were not part of the original image.
The authors did respond to our queries but were unable to provide a sufficient explanation for the duplicated images or provide the original TEM images for the study. As verifying the validity of published work is core to the integrity of the scholarly record, we are therefore retracting the article and the authors do not agree with this decision.
We have been informed in our decision-making by our editorial policies and COPE guidelines.
The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as ‘Retracted’.