Article title: The detection of (total and ccc) HBV DNA in liver transplant recipients with hepatitis B vaccine against HBV reinfection
Authors: B.W., Duan, S.C. Lu, W. Lai, X.E. Liu, & Y. Liu
Journal: Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics
Bibliometrics: Volume 11, Number 10, pages 2490-2494
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2015.1063755
The Editor and Publisher of Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics wish to issue an Expression of Concern for the published article.
“The detection of (total and ccc) HBV DNA in liver transplant recipients with hepatitis B vaccine against HBV reinfection” Bin-Wei Duan, Shi-Chun Lu, Wei Lai, Xue-En Liu & Yuan Liu Pages 2490-2494 | Received 23 Mar 2015, Accepted 13 Jun 2015, Accepted author version posted online: 15 Jul 2015, Published online:16 Sep 2015
Concerns have been raised that the study described in the article did not adhere to ethical guidelines as outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki and the Declaration of Istanbul and guidance from the World Health Organization and the World Medical Association regarding the source of transplanted human organs. Specifically, the British Medical Journal Open (BMJ Open) published an article highlighting many papers in which there is concern that transplanted organs were harvested from executed prisoners in China.
In response to these concerns we contacted the authors to clarify the source of the transplanted organs received by the patients described in their study. The response received from the author did not provide assurance that the transplantations were obtained via processes which would be deemed to be ethical by the standards described by WHO and WMA.
The Editor of Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics would like to alert readers of this. We will provide an update if we receive any further information.
Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics publishes research adhering to internationally accepted ethical standards and is committed to upholding the Declaration of Helsinki and Declaration of Istanbul. Taylor & Francis endorses the ethics guidelines described by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Medical Association (WMA).