A developer of an AI tool for conducting literature reviews said he and his team were “excited and honored” when a Cochrane journal had extended a “specific and individual invitation” in January 2025 to submit an article describing their system.

Kevin Kallmes, the chief executive officer at and founder of Nested Knowledge, and five of his colleagues wrote the manuscript and submitted their paper describing the procedure for using AutoLit. They included their affiliations and a note they held equity in the company. Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods published the paper in October, 2025.

A few months later, the journal retracted it. According to the June 1 retraction notice, the authors’ affiliations with the maker of the product described “constitute a breach of Cochrane’s COI policy.” “Due to an editorial oversight, this policy breach was not identified during the editorial process, leading to the article’s acceptance and publication,” according to the notice, which adds all authors agreed to the retraction.
 

Source https://retractionwatch.com/2026/07/13/disappointed-cochrane-journal-asked-researchers-to-publish-article-then-retracted-it-for-conflicts/

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