A medical journal is retracting a paper after a psychiatrist alleged that the managing editor closely copied and published her withdrawn work and claimed it for his own.
In addition, the managing editor, Gary VandenBos, PhD, has resigned at the journal’s request, according to an email sent to the paper’s original author, psychiatrist Amy Barnhorst, MD, vice chair for community mental health at the University of California, Davis, and coauthor and UC Davis colleague Rocco Pallin, MPH.
Dr. Barnhorst shared emails – from the journal’s publisher, Springer Publishing Company, and from the editor in chief, Morgan Sammons, PhD – with this news organization.
The retraction is the end of a saga that began when Dr. Barnhorst and Dr. Pallin submitted a paper, at Dr. VandenBos’s request, to the Journal of Health Service Psychology, published by Springer.
As previously reported by this news organization, Dr. Barnhorst and Dr. Pallin eventually decided to withdraw the paper and were later notified by Dr. VandenBos that he’d published a similar article under his own authorship. Michael O. Miller, a retired judge who trained as a psychologist, was listed as a coauthor.
The two women – acknowledged experts in the article’s subject matter on how physicians can talk to patients about gun violence – immediately notified Dr. Sammons and Springer Publishing when they saw the published piece, saying they believed it plagiarized their original submission.
According to the e-mail Springer sent to Dr. Barnhorst, the publisher investigated and said that it would “be retracting the article shortly.”
The retraction notice will state: “The Editor in Chief and the authors, Dr. VandenBos and Mr. Miller, have retracted this article, as it significantly overlaps with an unpublished manuscript by Amy Barnhorst and Rocco Pallin.” It also states that “[Dr.] VandenBos accepts full responsibility for the overlap.”
The original article will still be available, but it will be marked as “retracted” and feature a link to the retraction notice.
Dr. Barnhorst, who garnered at least 40,000 likes when she tweeted about the alleged theft of her work, said in an interview that she and Dr. Pallin are “glad to see that the investigation is complete and the retraction has been issued.”
“At least we can now submit it to a new journal in a version that appropriately represents our work and expertise,” said Dr. Barnhorst. “I still have no idea how or why this happened, nor how much of it was intentional and on whose part, but I guess I never will!”
Editor removed
When contacted by this news organization to comment on the retraction and removal of Dr. VandenBos as managing editor, Dr. Sammons said it was not possible because, “I treat such correspondence as confidential.”
Dr. Sammons said he could “confirm that our investigation is reaching its conclusion and my colleagues at Springer Nature would be happy to contact you when we can provide a further update.”
Springer spokesperson Anne Korn also would not comment beyond saying, “The conclusion of our investigation is still in progress and may take a little additional time.”
In the letter sent to Dr. Barnhorst and Dr. Pallin, Dr. Sammons said he had “asked for and accepted the resignation of Dr. VandenBos,” and that the resignation will be announced “in the upcoming print issue of our journal.”
Dr. Sammons said he also notified the dean of the University of Arizona College of Law that Mr. Miller, who held a position at the school, was not aware of the original submission by the two women. Even so, the school suspended Mr. Miller’s academic appointment, according to Dr. Sammons’ letter.
The editor in chief also said that, while “[Dr.] VandenBos’ errors were substantial and had substantial consequences, my investigation did not find any intent to plagiarize your work.”
He apologized again to Dr. Barnhorst and Dr. Pallin, though, adding, “I and my associate editors have initiated a revision of our publications processes to ensure that errors such as the above do not occur in the future, and I apologize again that this lapse affected you and your scholarly work.”
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.