Research on human gene function is riddled with "shocking" errors

A computer analysis of nearly 12,000 genetics papers found that-

Research on human gene function is riddled with "shocking" errors

Our reporter Zhang Mengran

Today's viewpoint

A computer-aided analysis of nearly 12,000 papers on human genetics found that papers on the function of human genes were full of "shocking" errors, and the percentage of nucleotide sequence errors in the papers was unacceptably high

In fact, the wrongly identified nucleotide sequence represents a "double hazard"-the incorrect sequence itself and its related results may mislead ongoing experiments and the direction of future research

It may be accidental or academic fraud

According to a report from the British "Nature" website, this analysis found that in nearly 12,000 human genetics papers, more than 700 studies contained errors in DNA or RNA sequences

Researchers believe that the occurrence of these errors may be accidental, but there may also be academic fraud

Brian first discovered the problem in five research papers

Brian suspects that they may come from a "paper factory", that is, papers delivered by a third-party company based on "orders

At present, 4 of these 5 papers have been withdrawn

The error rate is unacceptably high

In 2017, Bryan collaborated with computer scientists at the University of Grenoble in France to create a software called "Seek&Blastn", which can identify and flag potential errors in research

For example, the software can extract short nucleotide sequences from papers and compare them with data in the open nucleotide database "Blastn" to check whether they match the human genome expected by the research

The research team used the software to screen related papers in the journals "Gene" and "Reports of Oncology" that had previously published problematic papers, including 7,400 original papers published in "Gene" from 2007 to 2018, and 3800 open access papers published in Oncology Reports from 2014 to 2018

After manual screening, the researchers found that about 12% of the nucleotide sequences in the "Report of Oncology" paper had problems; 2% of the "Gene" papers had the above problems

In addition, Brian and the research team also screened research papers in the subfield of cancer genetics that had problems before, and found that out of about 600 related papers, more than 25% of the papers contained errors in their nucleotide sequences

The researchers said that the percentage of papers with errors in the nucleotide sequence found this time is unacceptably high.

Is it just the tip of the iceberg?

Nucleotide sequence refers to the sequence of bases in DNA or RNA, and is the basis of a series of molecular genetics techniques

However, according to researchers’ estimates this time, about a quarter of the problematic papers may mislead or distract the development of human disease treatments in the future.

The team has sent e-mails to all relevant journals or publishers that can find the editor's contact information, and some of them have responded that they will investigate these problematic papers

But at the same time, the researchers also hope that this study will inspire other researchers and journals to find more problematic papers on human gene function, because they have greater concerns-the wrong papers found this time are just problematic.
The tip of the iceberg
.