Yin R, Liu J, Zhao D, Wang F. Onco Targets Ther. 2020;13:2261–2274.
The Editor and Publisher of OncoTargets and Therapy wish to retract the published article. Concerns were raised regarding the alleged duplication of images in Figures 2C, 4B and 6B with similar images from unrelated articles, specifically:
Figure 2C, panel U2OS si-ASB16-AS1 appears to have been duplicated with a similar image in Figure 6C, panel Huh7 si-GAS6-AS+NC inhibitor from Ai et al, 2020 (https://doi.org/10.1080/15384101.2020.1729323).
Figure 4B, panels HOS agomir-NC; agomir-760 appear to have been duplicated with similar images in Figure 6C, panel Sw1990 miR-769 mimics+pcDNA3.1-ETS1 and 5C, panel Panc-1 si-ETS1, respectively from Cheng et al, 2020 (https://doi.org/10.2147/OTT.S218876).
Figure 6B, panel U2OS si-NC appears to have been duplicated with similar images in Figures 5C, panel H522 NC siRNA from Kang et al, 2019 (https://doi.org/10.2147/OTT.S204004) and 3D, panel si-HAND2-AS1 from Yu et al, 2020 (https://doi.org/10.2147/OTT.S233256), respectively.
The authors responded to our queries but were unable to provide an explanation for the alleged image duplication and could not provide the original raw data or ethics approval documents for their study and have therefore agreed to retract the article.
Our decision-making was informed by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retraction.
The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”.