Serum mucosa-associated epithelial chemokine in atopic dermatitis: a specific marker for severity: retraction.

[This retracts the article on p. 229 in vol. 54, PMID: 20161852.].

The following article is hereby retracted from the journal with immediate effect:

MH Ezzat, KY Shaheen. Serum mucosa-associated epithelial chemokine in atopic dermatitis: a specific marker for severity. Indian J Dermatol. 2009 Jul;54(3):229-36. doi: 10.4103/0019-5154.55630. (http://www.e-ijd.org/text.asp?2009/54/3/229/55630).[1]

This decision is reached based on communication from an alert reader, a report of a fact finding committee appointed by the editorial board of Indian Journal of Dermatology, and in consultation with the journal Ombudsman on the charges of duplicate and simultaneous submission of an article published in International Journal of Dermatology in 2009:

Ezzat MH, Sallam MA, Shaheen KY. Serum mucosa-associated epithelial chemokine (MEC/CCL28) in atopic dermatitis: a specific marker for severity. Int J Dermatol. 2009 Aug;48(8):822-9. doi:10.1111/j.1365-4632.2009.04069.x. (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-4632.2009.04069.x/abstract).[2]

It was further found that the same article was previously published in 2005 in Egyptian Journal of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology:

Ezzat MH, Shaheen KY. Serum mucosa-associated epithelial chemokine (MEC/CCL28) in atopic dermatitis: a specific marker for severity. Egypt J Pediatr Allergy Immunol 2005;3(2):64-74 (http://www.jespai.org/cms/upload/1393125132.pdf).[3]

The authors were initially served with a show-cause notice and then the dean of the university was also informed when the authors did not respond.

After waiting for another 4 weeks, based on a unanimous decision by the Editorial Board, a complete restriction on the part of the journal on all future articles in which they are assigned/mentioned as an author/coauthor was imposed and the author was notified accordingly.

The above article is being retracted from the Indian Journal of Dermatology and the authors are barred from submitting manuscript(s) to IJD in future.

IJD maintains a strict principle of absolute zero tolerance in matters like these.

Editor

Indian Journal of Dermatology