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 and erratum.

After readers contacted the journal about potentially duplicated images in the article, the ESP reviewed the following issues:

  • In the erratum for Fig. 5D (Diabetes 2014;63:3974; DOI: 10.2337/db14-er11), the “cleaved Caspase 3” panel (lanes 7 and 8 in the original blots and lanes 4 and 5 in the corrected version) closely resembles the “cleaved Casp3” panel in Fig. 3D in the original version of the article (Diabetes 2008;57:645–653; DOI: 10.2337/db07-0847).

  • Likewise, in the original article, Fig. 5D (lanes 4 and 5) resembles the “cleaved Casp3” panel in Fig. 3D.

  • In the erratum (Diabetes 2014;63:3974; DOI: 10.2337/db14-er11), the “cleaved Caspase 3” panel, lanes 1 and 2, closely resembles a horizontal mirror image of Fig. 2F, TCF7L2 panel, lanes 3 and 4, from a 2009 article by the same author group in the journal Human Molecular Genetics (Hum Mol Genet 2009;18:2388–2399; DOI: 10.1093/hmg/ddp178). In addition, lanes 4 and 5 of the corrected Fig. 5D in the erratum closely resemble a horizontal mirror image of Fig. 2F, TCF7L2 panel, lanes 1 and 2, of the Human Molecular Genetics article.

It should be noted that an erratum to replace Fig. 2F in the Human Molecular Genetics article was published in March 2015 (http://hmg.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/03/07/hmg.ddv075.full).

The Panel has contacted the corresponding author to inform her of these concerns, and the corresponding author’s institution, the University of Bremen, 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 ESP refers to COPE’s guidelines and best practices when reviewing potential violations of the journal’s publication policies.

© 2016 by the American Diabetes Association. Readers may use this article as long as the work is properly cited, the use is educational and not for profit, and the work is not altered.
2016