Elsevier has retracted two papers for image duplication – 13 years after the authors alerted the journal to issues with the work. The papers are the third and fourth retractions for a group of researchers in Ireland. The team had asked Elsevier journals to retract five papers in April 2012 — one of which is still in process.

The first two papers, published in Cancer Letters, were retracted in 2013. Then in August 2025 two more articles, published in the European Journal of Pharmacology (EJP), were retracted. Why the delay? The publisher said it only recently discovered the unfulfilled request.

The authors had "concerns that they could no longer guarantee the accuracy of certain figures within the paper," according to both EJP retraction notices, which cite image duplications among the five papers. The remaining article, which appeared in Chemico-Biological Interactions, "has yet to be retracted," according to the Elsevier spokesperson. "We are in touch with the current EIC [Editor in Chief] on this paper."

Source https://retractionwatch.com/2025/08/19/elsevier-european-journal-pharmacology-2012-retraction-delay/

Another high-profile case has interested scientists. Read now