Two papers of Prof. Kithiganahalli N. Balaji from IISc have been retracted and three more have been corrected for issues with images, including duplication and undeclared gel splices. Two more papers of his have been listed on PubPeer website.

On December 13, 2019, two papers of Prof. Kithiganahalli N. Balaji from the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru were retracted by the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Prof. Balaji won the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in 2011. He is the corresponding author of both the papers.

Both the papers were retracted due to duplication of the images within the same paper. Retraction Watch reported the retractions today (December 16).

In both cases, the authors had themselves had contacted the journal and provided the correct images. And in both papers published in July 2011 and August 2011, the authors themselves wanted the paper to be retracted.

In the case of the July 2011 paper, the retraction notice says: “The authors state that the responsible course of action would be to withdraw the article to maintain the high standards and rigour of scientific literature.”

And for the August 2011 paper, the retraction notice says: “The authors state that the responsible course of action would be to withdraw the article to maintain the high standards and rigour of scientific literature from the authors’ group as well as the Journal.”

Three papers corrected

On the same day (December 13), three more papers published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry were corrected for image problems. He is the corresponding author of all the three papers.

The three papers were originally published in March 2008, June 2010, and September 2015.

Two more problematic papers

According to Retraction Watch, there are two more papers have been listed on the PubPeer website. One of them has again been published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the while the other has been published in the Journal of Immunology.