Dang SC, Qian XB, Jin W, Cui L, Chen JX, Gu M. Onco Targets Ther. 2019;12:785–794.

We, the Editor and Publisher of the journal OncoTargets and Therapy have retracted the published article.

Following publication of the article, concerns were raised about the duplication of images from Figure 5 with images from an unrelated article. Specifically,

The image for Figure 5A, Blank, has been duplicated with images from Figure 2C, Migration, Blank and Invasion, PLL3.7, from Chen B, Zhu A, Tian L, et al. [Corrigendum] miR‑23a suppresses pancreatic cancer cell progression by inhibiting PLK‑1 expression. Molecular Medicine Reports. 2022;26:222. https://doi.org/10.3892/mmr.2022.12738.

The corresponding author did respond to our queries and explained that some experiments were carried out by a third party. However, they were unable to provide details of the third party or provide a satisfactory explanation for how the images came to be duplicated or provide satisfactory original data for the study. As verifying the validity of published work is core to the integrity of the scholarly record, the Publisher and Editor requested to retract the article and the corresponding author was notified of this decision.

We have been informed in our decision-making by our editorial policies and COPE guidelines.

The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”.