COVID-19 and the need for stringent rules on data sharing

Kewal Krishan; Tanuj Kanchan

doi:10.23750/abm.v92i1.11065

COVID-19 and the need for stringent rules on data sharing

Authors

Kewal Krishan Department of Anthropology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5321-0958
Tanuj Kanchan Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences Jodhpur, India http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0346-1075

Keywords:

COVID-19, Retractions, Publication Frauds, Data sharing, Publication ethics

Abstract

This communication refers to the retractions of the two high profile COVID-19 papers of the top medical journals when the data analytics company declined to share the raw data of the papers. In this commentary, we emphasize that it is very pertinent for the journals to mandatorily ask the authors for sharing of the primary data. This will ensure data integrity and transparency of the research findings, and help in negating the publication frauds.

Author Biographies

Kewal Krishan, Department of Anthropology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India

Dr. Kewal Krishan, Ph.D., FRAI Associate Professor and former Chair, Department of Anthropology, (UGC Centre of Advanced Study) Panjab University, Sector-14, Chandigarh, India E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] +919876048205 (Mobile) Dr. Kewal Krishan is a renowned forensic anthropologist and presently serving as Associate Professor and former Chairperson at the Department of Anthropology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India. He passed his BSc (Hons.), MSc (Hons.), and Ph.D. from Panjab University, India. He is well known for his contributions to forensic and biological anthropology in Indian populations. He published more than 222 articles in international and national journals of repute including high impact and reputed journals such as Nature, Nature Medicine, and The Lancet. Dr. Krishan has contributed to the advancement of Forensic Science and its applications in Indian populations. He has devised many methods of criminal investigation and formulae to be used in the criminal investigation process. He contributed invited chapters to the most coveted Encyclopedia of Forensic Sciences (2013), Encyclopedia of Forensic and Legal Medicine (2016) published by Elsevier and Encyclopedia of Archaeological Sciences (2018) published by Wiley-Blackwell. He is the Editor and on the panel of editors of various reputed international journals such as Forensic Science International, Medicine Science and the Law, Archives of Public Health etc. He has been awarded the fellowship of the Royal Anthropological Institute (FRAI) of Great Britain and Ireland, London for his contributions to forensic anthropology in India. His research has been cited by more than 8500 studies in the scientific literature. His Wikipedia profile is available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kewal_Krishan_(forensic_anthropologist) His interests include Forensics, Human biology, Biological anthropology, Human morphology, Anthropometry, Forensic podiatry, Publication ethics, Malnutrition and anthropological aspects of Public Health

Tanuj Kanchan, Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences Jodhpur, India

^{Dr Tanuj Kanchan, MD,}

Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences Jodhpur, India,

E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

References

Mehra MR, Desai SS, Kuy S, Henry TD, Patel AN. Cardiovascular disease, drug therapy, and mortality in Covid-19. N Engl J Med 2020;382:e102-e102. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2007621 (Retracted)

Mehra MR, Desai SS, Ruschitzka F, Patel AN. Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with or without a macrolide for treatment of COVID-19: a multinational registry analysis, Lancet 2020, DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31180-6 (Retracted)

Ledford H, Van Noorden R. High profile coronavirus retractions raise concerns about data oversight. Nature 200, 582, 488, doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-01695-w

Yeo-The NSL. Tang BL. An alarming retraction rate for scientific publications on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Account Res 2020, doi: 10.1080/08989621.2020.1782203