Retraction: Franciscis et al. Environmental pollution due to cadmium: measure of semen quality as a marker of exposure and correlation with reproductive potential. Clinical and Experimental Obstetrics & Gynecology. 2015; 42: 767–770

The editorial office has retracted the article entitled “Environmental pollution due to cadmium: measure of semen quality as a marker of exposure and correlation with reproductive potential” [1] due to significant concerns regarding the reliability and integrity of the data presented.

Recently, several issues were brought to the attention of the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief (EiC) regarding the authenticity of the data in this paper published in 2015 prior to the present publisher and EiC taking over the management of the journal. Details were below:

(1) The number of data points in the charts does not correspond to the number of patients described in the text.

(2) Group partitions differ between the two panels without explanation.

(3) Axes in the figures appear unequally spaced, and in the right panel the X- and Y-axes do not cross as expected.

(4) The variable represented on the X-axis is not clearly defined.

The editorial office carefully evaluated these concerns and contacted the corresponding author on different occasions for clarification and supporting data, but he/she did not reply. We also attempted to locate other co-authors, but were unable to do so due to a lack of complete information for them.

In agreement with the Editor-in-Chief, and in line with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines, the decision has been made to retract this article.

References

[1] De Franciscis P, Ianniello R, Labriola D, Ambrosio D, Vagnetti P, Mainini G, et al. Environmental pollution due to cadmium: measure of semen quality as a marker of exposure and correlation with reproductive potential. Clinical and Experimental Obstetrics & Gynecology. 2015; 42: 767–770. https://doi.org/10.12891/ceog3029.2015.