中國學者《Science》論文撤稿！因疫情隔離導致數據混亂

10 月 9 日，《科學》（Science）撤回了7月發表的一篇題為 Proton transport enabled by afield-induced metallic state in a semiconductor heterostructure 的論文。該論文來自一組中國學者，通訊作者是中國地質大學（武漢）的副研究員宋懷兵及教授朱斌。

一個多月前，《科學》雜誌發表了對這篇論文的「編輯部關切」，表示該論文發表後，期刊先後收到了兩封郵件，指出該論文 S9B 和 S10 兩張圖與此前朱斌擔任通訊作者的另外兩篇論文中的數據相似，可能存在篡改。此外，學術打假專家 Elisabeth Bik 也在 PubPeer 上指出了同樣的問題。

PubPeer 貼出了該 Science 論文的問題數據圖（左），與此前發表的另外兩篇論文中的數據圖（右）高度相似。

論文作者在撤稿聲明中稱，這是一個「意外錯誤」：出現問題的圖片曾作為示意圖被保存在實驗資料庫中，因出稿時間正值新冠流行期間，作者們被隔離導致交接不暢，使用了錯誤圖片。根據「撤稿觀察」的報導，通訊作者之一的朱斌通過郵件表示，包括他本人在內的部分作者不同意撤稿，理由是雖然存在錯誤，但文章本身具備獨立性、真實性和可重複性；而且《科學》有時允許作者對有問題的文章進行勘誤，而非直接撤稿。

「學術打假」學者Elisabeth Bik認為，論文作者因疫情隔離而導致的數據混亂的理由雖然合理，但這個錯誤使人對研究的有效性產生懷疑，因此撤稿是一個合理的決定。她希望「這些錯誤能鼓勵研究者更好地記錄實驗室筆記和文件名」，也希望「雜誌能考慮允許作者重新提交他們修訂後的工作」。

以下是撤稿聲明全文：

The supplementary materials (SM) for our Report 「Proton transport enabled by a field-induced metallic state in a semiconductor heterostructure」 (1) contained mistakes. Fig. S10 was incorrect. The image had been previously saved in an experimental database. The figure should have shown a schematic illustration. This mistake occurred when computer data was transferred from one student to another. Fig. S9B also raised questions. The image appears to be a copy of figure 8B in a 2018 paper in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2). The tests producing the data for these two figures were performed during the same period of time. Because of the similarity between the IV-IP measurements of SN-120 and the NaxCoO2/CeO2 (x = 0.55) measurements, these data were wrongly saved in the same folder. Therefore, the final plotted fig. S9B in Science erroneously contains data from the figure in the 2018 paper. We repeated the experiment to replicate the data and found that the new outputs of two NaxCoO2/CeO2 (x < 0.6) cells are above 550 mW cm−2 at 520°C, consistent with the data in fig. S9.

These mistakes were related to recent location and personnel changes. Between June and September 2019, all laboratories of the Faculty of Materials Science and Chemistry, including ours, had to move to a new campus 30 km away. During the same time, author L. Liu graduated, but the ordinary data transfer to successors was temporarily discontinued. The manuscript was finalized between mid-December 2019 and March 2020, during the unprecedented lockdown of the city of Wuhan for coronavirus disease 2019. All authors who prepared the main manuscript and SM data were isolated in different cities and countries, without access to lab computers or database resources, which led to miscommunications.

We take full responsibility for the accidental mistakes in the SM. We stand by our experimental design, theoretical calculations, main data, and analysis of low-temperature proton ceramic fuel cells. However, given the mistakes in the SM, we have decided to retract the Report. All authors except for B. Zhu, M. Huang, M. Akbar, and J. S. Kim approved this Retraction.

本文綜合自「科學網、RetractionWatch, Science」。