The Editors and Publisher regret to announce the following article published in 2013 has been retracted from publication in Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine:
Havas M, Marrongelle J. Replication of heart rate variability provocation study with 2.4-GHz cordless phone confirms original findings. Electromagn Biol Med. 2013 Jun;32(2):253–66. (doi: 10.3109/15368378.2013.776437).
The Journal has had to retract this article because institutional review board approval for the research on which the article is based has been found to be lacking.
After a detailed review by the Research Ethics Board at Trent University, it has been determined that the paper published in the Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine by Magda Havas and Jeffrey Marrongelle in June 2013 did not receive institutional ethics review and approval by Trent University (Havas’ host institution) for research involving human subjects. As a result it is the opinion of Trent University that the work should not have been conducted or published based on the ethics policies and guidelines that the university’s faculty are expected to follow.
It is noted that the author, Magda Havas, did receive a Human Subjects Protocol (#22836) approval for a study entitled “Effects of exogenous electromagnetic fields on endogenous electromagnetic properties of the human body”, with an approval date of November 5th, 2013. Havas has informed the Publisher that embedded in this approved proposal was a similar research protocol to that used in the published study above, and therefore this was a blind retroactive approval. The Research Ethics Board at Trent University have since confirmed that because the published article in Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine, June 2013 predates approval of protocol #22836, it cannot be considered retroactive approval for work that preceded ethical review by the Trent University Research Ethics Board.
Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine published this article in good faith, and on the basis of signed statements of the corresponding author regarding the ethical reliability of their work. The article is withdrawn from all print and electronic editions.
Henry Lai and Joseph R. Salvatore (Editors-in-Chief)
Anna Treadway (Publishing Director, Informa Healthcare)