Text: Liu Jiajia, Zhang Qingdan
Recently, the famous French microbiologist Didier Raoult was retracted by several journals for violating research ethics.
These retractions may be "insignificant" compared to the volume of Raoult's posts. According to the Global Scientist Rankings published by Research.com, the world's leading academic research portal, Raoult is ranked first in the world in the field of microbiology and second in France in the field of medicine. So far, he has published a total of 3,196 papers in the field of microbiology, which is nearly five times the number of papers published by the second place (Professor Willem M. de Vos of Wageningen University in the Netherlands), with a total of more than 190,000 citations.
But on the other hand, Raoult as an academic influencer has never been short of controversy. According to PubPeer, a well-known academic anti-counterfeiting website, the number of papers questioned by Raoult has skyrocketed at an alarming rate in recent years, and now stands at 378.
On January 5, Elisabeth Bik, a well-known academic anti-counterfeiter, posted an article on social platforms, and a total of 11 articles have been retracted by Raoult and his team. But Bik said she was disappointed by the small actions taken by the French institutions and that she expects that will change in the future.
Bik posted
撤稿不断,反击Bik
此次撤稿的期刊包括美国微生物学会（ASM）旗下的两本杂志Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy、Journal of Clinical Microbiology，以及另外一本微生物学顶尖杂志BMC Microbiology。
The reasons given in these retraction notices are almost identical. Raoult violated the Code of Ethics by recruiting participants in Niger and Senegal to conduct microbiological experiments, but failing to provide approval documents from local ethics committees.
In its official retraction notice on January 4, the American Society for Microbiology said that the editors had retracted the article because the authors were unable to provide evidence of proper ethics committee approval. In addition, according to the purpose of the study, this study falls within the jurisdiction of the French Law on the Protection of Research Participants, and therefore, it should be submitted to the French Ethics Committee. Formally, this article cannot be considered in compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki and French laws and regulations.
Didier Raoult's retracted paper Image source: ASM website
In fact, this is not the first time Raoult has been retracted, or in other words, this retraction is another storm in Raoult's "series of academic controversies".
In September 2022, his team was "seriously investigated for failures" by the university for academic misconduct in four papers, and was "criminally investigated" by the French health authorities at the same time.
In November 2023, his team was retracted by Scientific Reports for violating the Code of Ethics for research.
In December 2023, publisher PLOS reviewed nearly 50 of Raoult's papers and expressed concern over ethical issues.
Back in 2021, Bik questioned Raoult's academic article. In addition to the possible ethical implications of science, Bik noted that one of the papers was reviewed unusually quickly — the paper was submitted on March 16 and accepted on March 17. Bik's analysis suggests that the reason may be that one of the authors of the paper happens to be the editor-in-chief of the journal.
Raoult was very "tough" about Bik's questioning, not only denying it, but even suing Bik, saying that it constituted harassment and threats. But more than 2,000 researchers and 30 academic groups signed an open letter in support of Bik, opposing any attacks and retaliation that go beyond the academic sphere.
Large papers: more than 3,000 papers, nearly 200,000 citations
Raoult was born in Senegal in 1952 and his family moved to Marseille, France. After receiving a double doctorate in medicine and human biology, he secured a teaching position at the University of Aix-Marseille in France, where he became president at the age of 42. In 2012, he founded and is the Director of the Mediterranean Institute for the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases, which he has now retired.
Over the course of his long and illustrious academic career, Raoult has made many original discoveries as a microbiologist, medical scientist and infectious disease scientist. Most importantly, he was the first discoverer of a giant virus, and his discovery suggests that viruses should exist as the fourth separate domain of the biological world. It was this discovery that helped him win the Grands Prix Inserm, one of France's highest scientific awards.
According to the New York Times, for decades, Raoult has boasted of his astonishing publication and citation rates. He believes that these objective statistics are the best measure of his status as a researcher.
His academic data is truly impressive. Up to now, he has published 3,196 papers in the field of microbiology, with a total of more than 190,000 citations.
Image source: research.com
Looking at Raoult's academic achievements alone, he can definitely be called a world-class expert in the field of microbiology and even medicine.
However, the evaluation of him from all walks of life is mixed.
"I know I'm a genius"
Raoult is an internet celebrity in academia, which is why his "mass retraction incident" has attracted widespread attention.
He rose to fame at a young age, often attracting attention for his narcissistic, blunt, and iconoclastic gestures and statements.
At the beginning of the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, he relied on clinical medical data and threatened that the number of new crown pneumonia deaths in France exceeded 100,000 "not worth mentioning". In March 2020, he claimed that through a six-person clinical trial, he verified that the miraculous combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin can make patients recover in the early treatment of the new crown, claiming that it is a 100% clinical treatment that can cure the new crown, attracting the world's attention to himself.
图片来源：dailywire
French President Emmanuel Macron personally visited his laboratory to consult on the progress of research on new crown drugs. Former U.S. President Donald Trump also strongly supported Raoult's research and posted on social media that the combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin could be vigorously promoted for the clinical treatment of new crown pneumonia.
Because of his boldness and fresh ideas, Raoult made a name for himself during the pandemic. Various merchandise in the image of Raoult was even developed as a way to express worship. Some wore T-shirts with Raoult's portrait on them, while others were more fanatical with Raoult's portrait tattooed on their bodies. Some even grow beards, wishing they were more like Raoult.
However, the academic community has expressed doubts and dissatisfaction with its flamboyant style. Ever since Raoult proposed hydroxychloroquine therapy, scientists around the world have followed suit to verify the efficacy from different angles. But the results were disappointing, and not only was the treatment ineffective, but it also had side effects. For example, Jean-Michel Molina, head of the infectious disease department at the Paris public hospital, tested hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin on 11 of his own patients, and at the end of the study eight still tested positive for the coronavirus. To this, Raoult responds that he likes to see himself first and foremost as a doctor, and that his moral obligation is to save people, not to provide reliable data.
Axel Kahn, a geneticist who has known Raoult for nearly 40 years, says he has always had the same characteristic: he knows that he is very good.
The New York Times reported that a political authority had advised him to become a doctor and stop saying "I'm a genius."
In fact, Raoult was also a victim of academic misconduct when he was younger.
According to media reports, in 1979, he completed his first research paper in Marseille, studying tick-borne infections. The disease, also known as Marseille fever, has long been considered a benign summer fever. But Raoult found that one of the 41 cases had already seen a death.
Before the paper was submitted, the young Raoult gave it to a senior professor for discussion. The professor took the paper and did not give any follow-up, but secretly published it. What made Raoult even more angry was that there was no death case in the paper published in the journal. Raoult speculated that no one knew how to interpret the death at the time.
What is embarrassing is that the victim failed to keep the bottom line of scientific research and became an academic misconductist.
Resources:
https://retractionwatch.com/2024/01/08/journals-retract-six-didier-raoult-papers-for-ethics-violations/#more-128531
https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/aac.01508-23
https://retractionwatch.com/2023/10/31/controversial-french-researcher-loses-two-papers-for-ethics-approval-issues/
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/N0WjL98aYMPANv2ZXCJeAA
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/4Ccn0Dx3HkddDIWiu2hvyw
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/NyDYjcboKEsKCVNQEs9PsQ
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/P9STxeWJMXXhn26YeKq3uw