Yesterday, Retraction Watch published a piece about a notorious 2020 article by Gautret et al that had promoted the idea that hydroxychloroquine could treat COVID-19. Despite numerous concerns, the article has not been retracted from the International Journal for Antimicrobial Agents, a journal that is co-owned by the publisher, Elsevier, and The International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (ISAC).
On June 3rd, a group of concerned scientists wrote to Elsevier asking for the paper to be retracted in light of the evidence that the paper was flawed and had serious consequences for public health. The fact that the article pops up in the Web of Science database with a trophy symbol denoting it as a 'highly cited paper' just adds to concerns that it is still being taken seriously, giving credence to those who continue to promote an ineffective drug, hydroxychloroquine, to treat COVID-19.
Elsevier's response? They are "reopening the investigation" into the paper. This is the investigation that previously decided nothing needed to be done, despite a damning report by a group of respected experts. In their reply to the letter they stated:
"We cannot currently provide further detail as to the particulars of this investigation as it remains ongoing, and is necessarily confidential while we allow time to discuss our concerns with the authors as part of due process and in line with COPE recommendations. I will however be more then glad to keep you appraised of any final decisions in due course."
As one experienced in these
communications, I can confirm that this is the kind of reply you get by a
publisher who is kicking the issue into the long grass in the hope that
you will forget about it and go away.
The wonderful phrase "it remains ongoing" typically refers to something that goes on, and on, and on, and "due course" can take years.
A pertinent question is what COPE recommendations are being followed: there are a whole range of flowcharts provided by COPE for different circumstances. The most relevant in this case would appear to be this one on "Concerns about risk in published data".
Early on in the flowchart, the decision tree asks "Based on the initial assessment, should the dataset be removed or restricted during the investigation to mitigate potential risk?" If the answer is YES, then the appropriate action is "Remove public access to the dataset while following up on the concerns."
Given that the article is still freely available on the web, we have to ask ourselves, is Elsevier being negligent here? Have they decided that there is no risk, despite the evidence that we and others have provided that public health is endangered by publicising misleading data on an ineffective drug? Or do they agree that there is risk, but deem it inconvenient for them to take action?
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