An Indian researcher has requested the Indian Journal of Critical Care Medicine (IJCCM) to amend the reason for the retraction of a paper published in October 2023, alleging that the data in the study were not erroneous but stolen from his postgraduate thesis. The contested paper, titled “Prediction of Weaning Outcome from Mechanical Ventilation Using Ultrasound Assessment of Parasternal Intercostal Muscle Thickness,” was published by JP Medical and is indexed in Clarivate’s Web of Science.
Allegations of Data Misuse
The controversy came to light when Dr. Sundara Kannan, a junior consultant at Kovai Medical Center and Hospital in Tamil Nadu, published a letter to the editor in IJCCM on November 30, 2024, alleging that the authors of the now-retracted paper had plagiarized his 2022 postgraduate thesis, titled “Role of Parasternal Intercostal Muscle Ultrasound during Weaning from Mechanical Ventilation and Prediction of Extubation Success in ICU—A Prospective Observational Study.”
Kannan claims that the retracted study contained “exact same data of the thesis including demographic characters, baseline data, and the primary and secondary objectives.” He stated that his original findings were presented at the EuroAsia 2022 conference, registered with the Clinical Trial Registry of India, and cleared by his Institutional Ethics Committee.
The journal’s undated retraction notice, however, cited “major errors in data” as the reason for withdrawal. Kannan argues that this does not accurately reflect the true circumstances and insists that the article should be retracted for data theft/plagiarism instead.
Key Individuals Involved
The now-retracted study was led by Dr. Arjun Ramaswamy, an associate consultant at Apollo Hospital Enterprises in Mumbai. Interestingly, Ramaswamy’s professional profile claims he won the “Best First Paper Award 2023” at IJCCM for the article in question. He has professional ties to Kovai Medical Center, where Kannan currently works, but has not responded to requests for comment.
In May 2024, Kannan and his team confronted the corresponding author, Dr. Nitesh Gupta, an associate professor at Vardhman Mahavir Medical College & Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi, with evidence of the alleged data theft. Following this confrontation, Gupta and his co-authors decided to voluntarily withdraw the manuscript. However, Gupta has also declined to comment on the allegations.
Calls for an Amended Retraction Statement
In his letter to the editor, Kannan demanded that the retraction statement be revised to reflect the correct reason, emphasizing that his original work is still in the process of being submitted to another journal. “If we publish our findings, which include more secondary objectives and analysis, that should be considered the original data and can be used anywhere for publication by the original authors,” he asserted.
Concerns Raised Before Retraction
Before its retraction, the paper had already attracted scrutiny from the scientific community. In March 2024, another letter to the editor raised several concerns regarding the study’s methodology, including queries about whether COVID-19 patients were included in the study. In response, Ramaswamy and his co-authors defended their work, stating in April 2024 that they welcomed further discussion and feedback.
Despite these previous concerns, the paper had gained some traction, having been cited five times according to Clarivate’s Web of Science.
Journal’s Response and Lack of Transparency
When questioned about why the journal published Kannan’s letter but did not update the retraction notice to reflect the plagiarism allegations, IJCCM’s Managing Editor, Prashant Kaushik, responded that the matter was being reviewed but has since failed to provide further clarification. Similarly, the journal’s Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Atul Kulkarni, has remained silent on the issue.
Interestingly, in an interview published in November 2024, Kulkarni had stated that IJCCM is “renowned for its rigorous peer review process and for publishing high-quality, impactful research.” This incident, however, raises questions about the journal’s oversight mechanisms and its handling of ethical concerns.
The Bigger Picture: Ethical Challenges in Academic Publishing
This case highlights the ongoing challenges faced by researchers in protecting their intellectual property, particularly when presenting unpublished work at conferences. It also underscores the broader issue of academic integrity and the need for journals to adopt more transparent and robust processes for handling allegations of misconduct.
Kannan’s demand for an amended retraction serves as a call to action for publishers to prioritize transparency and accountability in retraction notices, ensuring that the correct reasons are publicly documented to prevent similar cases in the future.
The academic community is closely monitoring the developments in this case, which may set a precedent for how disputes related to data misappropriation are handled by journals and institutions.