Retraction

Abstract

El Sharkwy, I.A. and Abd El Aziz, W.M. (2019), Randomized controlled trial of N-acetylcysteine versus l-carnitine among women with clomiphene-citrate-resistant polycystic ovary syndrome. Int J Gynecol Obstet, 147: 59-64. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijgo.12902 The above article, published online on 4 July 2019 on Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), has been retracted by agreement between the journal's Editor-in-Chief, Professor Michael Geary, the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. The journal's Editor-in-Chief was contacted by a third party who raised concerns about the article. The concerns related to the plausibility of the data, recruitment rates, and evidence that a study¹ published earlier in Gynecological Endocrinology (with the same corresponding author and carried out in the same institutions) presented very similar data. The corresponding author was contacted and asked to respond to the concerns raised, but was unable to provide the data file for review. Following further review by an independent Research Integrity consultant, it was found that the pattern of identical digits in tables across the two published papers was implausible. In addition, it was noted that the p-values in the baseline tables did not match the data in the tables-it was not possible to reproduce the results in these tables, or those corresponding to the outcomes in the study. As a result, the journal is issuing this retraction due to continued concerns regarding the integrity of the data, which questions the validity of the previously reported results. REFERENCE El Sharkwy I, Sharaf El-Din M. L-carnitine plus metformin in clomiphene-resistant obese PCOS women, reproductive and metabolic effects: a randomized clinical trial. Gynecol Endocrinol. 2019;35(8):701-705.