Bulk of journal’s guest edited special issue content retracted

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The linked editorial, however, has also been retracted as it almost exclusively referred to the retracted papers.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