The editors of the European Respiratory Journal and the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine have been alerted to the triplicate use of identical scanning electron microscopy images in figure 1c (top right panel) in the AJRCCM article entitled “Disruption of platelet-derived chemokine heteromers prevents neutrophil extravasation in acute lung injury” [1], figure 2b in the ERJ article entitled “Pioglitazone attenuates endotoxin-induced acute lung injury by reducing neutrophil recruitment” [2] and figure 2a (top right panel) in the PLoS ONE article “Simvastatin reduces endotoxin-induced acute lung injury by decreasing neutrophil recruitment and radical formation” [3]. In addition, figure 2d in the ERJ article [2] also appears as figure 2a (middle right panel) in the PLoS ONE article [3].
The lead authors, Dr. Grommes and Dr. Soehnlein, have assured the AJRCCM and ERJ editors that this was an inadvertent (although inappropriate) use of identical images in the same control conditions and that there was no fraudulent intention; the authors wish to apologise for their mistake. The editors have jointly discussed this matter and have agreed that, as the duplicate images represent negative and positive control conditions, the results and conclusions of the studies were not affected by this issue. The editors would like to thank the authors for their prompt cooperation in this matter; they would also like to thank the reader who brought the duplicated panels to the attention of the journals.
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