On the basis of the recommendation of the American Diabetes Association’s Panel on Ethical Scientific Programs (ESP), the American Diabetes Association, the publisher of Diabetes, is issuing this expression of concern to alert readers to questions about the reliability of the data in the above-cited article.
After readers of the journal contacted Diabetes about potentially duplicated images in the article, the ESP reviewed the following issues:
Lanes 1–4 of the total p70S6K strip in Fig. 3B appear to be duplicates of lanes 2, 3, 1, and 4, respectively, of the IB:GLUT4 strip in Fig. 4I of the following 2006 FEBS Letters article:
Prada et al. FEBS Lett 2006;580:4889–4894. DOI: 10.1016/j.febslet.2006.08.004. PMID: 16919274
These lanes, with size, brightness, and contrast adjustments, appear to also have been previously published in the following articles:
Flores et al. Diabetes 2006;55:2554–2561. DOI: 10.2337/db05-1622. PMID: 16936204 (Fig. 6F, lanes 2–5, bottom strip)
Ropelle et al. Endocrinology 2007;148:5220–5229. DOI: 10.1210/en.2007-0381. PMID: 17717055 (Fig. 2B, total AMPK)
In addition, these images may have been subsequently republished in independent and unrelated experiments reported in the following articles:
Ropelle et al. PLoS ONE 2008;3:e3856. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003856. PMID: 19052642 (Fig. 2G, IB:JAK2, and Fig. 2H, IB:STAT3)
Ropelle et al. J Physiol 2009;587(Pt. 9):2069–2076. DOI: 10.1113/jphysiol.2008.164202. PMID: 19273580 (Fig. 2C, IB:α-tubulin)
Flores et al. Gastroenterology 2012;143:741–753.e1–e4. DOI: 10.1053/j.gastro.2012.05.045. PMID: 22677195 (Fig. 1D, IB:IKKβ, and Fig. 2D, IB:IRβ)
Calisto et al. Crit Care 2012;16:R158. DOI: 10.1186/cc11478. PMID: 22897821 (Fig. 4B, IB:IR, lanes 2–5)
Lanes 1 and 2 and lanes 3 and 4 in Fig. 6L, total eIF4E, appear to be identical. In addition, the total eIF4E strip appears to be a duplicate of an image originally published in the following 2006 FEBS Letters article:
Prada et al. FEBS Lett 2006;580:4889–4894. DOI: 10.1016/j.febslet.2006.08.004. PMID: 16919274 (Fig. 4C, IB:IRS-1)
This image appears to also have been previously published in the following articles:
Tsukumo et al. Diabetes 2007;56:1986–1998. DOI: 10.2337/db06-1595. PMID: 17519423 (Fig. 5B, Akt, lanes 1–4)
Ropelle et al. Endocrinology 2007;148:5220–5229. DOI: 10.1210/en.2007-0381. PMID: 17717055 (Fig. 2D, total AMPK, and Fig. 2F, α-tubulin, with horizontal and vertical rotation)
Furthermore, the image may have been subsequently republished, with size, orientation, brightness, and contrast adjustments, in independent and unrelated experiments reported in the following articles:
De Souza et al. J Physiol 2010;588(Pt. 12):2239–2253. DOI: 10.1113/jphysiol.2009.183996. PMID: 20421289 (Fig. 1G, IB:Foxo1, and Fig. 1C, IB:IRS2)
Oliveira et al. Diabetes 2011;60:784–796. DOI: 10.2337/db09-1907. PMID: 21282367 (Fig. 3A, IB:IKKβ)
Calisto et al. Crit Care 2012;16:R158. DOI: 10.1186/cc11478. PMID: 22897821 (Fig. 4B, IB:Akt, lanes 1–4)
The Panel has contacted the corresponding author to inform him of these concerns, and the corresponding author’s institution, the University of Campinas (São Paulo, Brazil), has been asked to undertake an investigation of these issues. Diabetes will make a final decision on the publication status of this article after the journal obtains more information on the reliability of the data and conclusions presented in the article.
Diabetes is a member journal of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (publicationethics.org). As such, the editors of the journal and the ESP refer to COPE’s guidelines and recommendations when reviewing such matters.
