Diversity of Virulence Genes in Multidrug Resistant Escherichia coli from a Hospital in Western China [Retraction]

Li X, Luo Q, Yu X, Zhang Y, Cao X, Li D. Diversity of Virulence Genes in Multidrug Resistant Escherichia coli from a Hospital in Western China. Inf Drug Resist.  2019;12:3817– 3826.

At the request of the authors, the Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Infection and Drug Resistance wish to retract the published article.

We were notified by the corresponding author, Dr. Dan Li, that permission to publish the data had not been provided by the correct authorities from the School of Medical Laboratory Science at Chengdu Medical College. At our request an investigation was conducted by the School of Medical Laboratory Sciences of Chengdu Medical College, headed by the Dean of the school.

The investigation determined that while the data had been collected correctly and some discussion had taken place regarding publication, no official authorisation had been given to publish the data. It was also found key members of the lab, including the laboratory’s director, who were involved in designing the experiments and providing bacterial strains, funding and equipment had not been given the proper attribution or adequate notification of the publication.

The editor agreed the data had been published without authorisation for use and agreed to a retraction. All the authors have agreed with this decision and wish to apologise for this error.'

Our decision-making was informed by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retraction.

The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”.

This retraction relates to this paper