Bulk of journal’s guest edited special issue content retracted

Bulk of journal’s guest edited special issue content retracted

Publication process had been compromised in 7 of the 8 papers in the collection

BMJ Group has retracted most of the content belonging to a guest edited special issue published in 2019 in the Journal of Medical Genetics.

Investigations revealed that the review process for 7 of the 8 papers in the collection had been irreparably compromised. This included problems with objective peer review and editorial assessment of papers.

There was no evidence that the review process for the remaining paper in the collection was compromised. An external review by a subject specialist confirmed that the content is sound, and it won’t be retracted.

The linked editorial, however, has also been retracted as it almost exclusively referred to the retracted papers.

Dr Huw Dorkins, current editor in chief of the Journal of Medical Genetics, added: “This topic collection was really out of scope for the journal, and accepted under a different  editorial regime, when different processes applied. We have since reviewed our policies and improved our practice around topic collections.”

Retracted content:

Wang X, Shen H, He Q, et al. (2019) Exosomes derived from exhausted CD8+ T cells impaired the anticancer function of normal CD8+ T cells. Journal of Medical Genetics 56(1):29-31. DOI: 10.1136/jmedgenet-2018-105439

Cheng C, Tang N, Li J, et al. (2019) Bacteria-free minicircle DNA system to generate integration-free CAR-T cells. Journal of Medical Genetics 56(1):10-17. DOI: 10.1136/jmedgenet-2018-105405

Wang Y, Zheng D, Shi M, et al. (2019) T cell dysfunction in chronic hepatitis B infection and liver cancer: evidence from transcriptome analysis. Journal of Medical Genetics 56(1):22-28. DOI: 10.1136/jmedgenet-2018-105570

Xia A, He Q, Wang J, et al. (2019) Applications and advances of CRISPR-Cas9 in cancer immunotherapy. Journal of Medical Genetics 56(1):4-9. DOI: 10.1136/jmedgenet-2018-105422

Chen D, Chen W, Xu Y, et al. (2019) Upregulated immune checkpoint HHLA2 in clear cell renal cell carcinoma: a novel prognostic biomarker and potential therapeutic target. Journal of Medical Genetics 56(1):43-49. DOI: 10.1136/jmedgenet-2018-105454

Wang X, He Q, Shen H, et al. (2019) Genetic and phenotypic difference in CD8+ T cell exhaustion between chronic hepatitis B infection and hepatocellular carcinoma. Journal of Medical Genetics 56(1):18-21. DOI: 10.1136/jmedgenet-2018-105267

Weng Q, Chen M, Li M, et al. (2019) Global microarray profiling identified hsa_circ_0064428 as a potential immune-associated prognosis biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma. Journal of Medical Genetics 56(1):32-38. DOI: 10.1136/jmedgenet-2018-105440

Xia A, Xu Y, Lu X. (2019) Cancer immunotherapy: challenges and clinical applications. Journal of Medical Genetics 56(1):1-3. DOI: 10.1136/jmedgenet-2018-105852

Further information
BMJ Group Media Relations
Email: mediarelations@bmj.com

15/04/2026