| UFR DE BIOCHIMIE Université Paris 7- D. Diderot 2 Place Jussieu. 75005 PARIS Pr. Bernard PERBAL Laboratoire d’Oncologie Virale et Moléculaire Tel: 01 44 27 57 04 - 06 80 43 35 88 Fax: 01 30 64 18 65 e.mail: perbal@ccr.jussieu.fr Attention : Dr. ……… Editor in Chief Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism From : Professor Bernard PERBAL september 5th, 2001 Dear Dr. ……….. I wish to file an official complaint regarding the publication in JCEM 86, 3929-3940 of a manuscript entitled « Altered expression of novH is associated with human adrenocortical tumorigenensis » by Martinerie et al. I accuse C. Martinerie, C. Gicquel, M. Laurent and Y. Le Bouc of scientific misconduct for deliberately withdrawing my name and Pr. Kyurckchiev’s from the co-authors. These authors were perfectly aware that : 1) the results reported in figures 1, 2 and 3 were obtained by C. Martinerie, when she was part of my team and under my scientific direction. Immunocytochemistry was performed under my request with samples that were provided by Le Bouc’s collaborators. 2) this project was initiated in my laboratory long before my group participated to the creation of the Inserm unit presently headed by Le Bouc. I had presented these results in my talk at the 5th International Symposium on Insulin-like growth factors in Brighton(october 1999). The documents that I have in hands demonstrate without any question my intellectual contribution and scientific direction. I also have in hands a copy of the first draft (with figures) of this manuscript, written upon my request by C. Martinerie, and sent to me on 26th june 1999, before she joined Le Bouc’s group. The photos, raw datas, that were given to me by C. Martinerie, and the private informations regarding the origin of the tumors provided by C. Gicquel are additional proofs of my direct scientific involvement in this project. Funds from grants that I personally obtained as principal investigator and in charge of the projects were also used to conduct this research. I want to insist on the fact that my participation was not ponctual, as it is often the case in many laboratories where researchers « give a hand » to a colleague without being involved in his,or her, project. In the frame of a collaboration initiated in 1974, Pr Schofield has been providing, upon my request, the human samples used by C. Martinerie to originally show that adrenal was a major site of nov expression. Although the results that were originally obtained were not quite satisfactory because of the lack of control for quantitation, we had agreed to include this information and therefore keep Pr. Schofield as a co-author when we were talking about publication. Pr. Schofield still appears in the co-author list whilst the blot showing high expression is of commercial origin. After C. Martinerie and M. Laurent joined Le Bouc’s team (october 1999) to persue experiments that had been initiated in my own group, and under my scientific direction, they have deliberately withdrawn my name and Pr. Kyurchiev’s. This constitutes a scientific misconduct that is unacceptable. The authors themselves ackowledge « S. Kyurkchiev for purifying the K19M antibodies ». The purified antibodies were prepared by Pr. Kyurkchiev when, upon my request, he was staying in my group as an Invited Professor of the Paris 7 University, to initiate immunological studies on nov. Using these unpublished purified antibodies whithout asking my prior consent and without contacting Pr. Kyurkchiev whose name is also withdrawn constitute another aspect of the scientific misconduct of the authors. I wish to remind you that I had contacted you already , about the same matter, on september 6, 2000, and raised my concerns about the submission of that paper. I have also indicated to you that the same authors already published, without my consent and quoting my name, part of this work as a poster abstract in « the Annales d’Endocrinologie , 2000, 61, 296, Masson.). I can provide copies of these letters and of Mrs Meravy’s replies if you need them. Although I expected you to react and alert me if the submission was to take place as I was guessing from my informations, I realize that the abovementioned paper was submitted on november 17, 2000 and that nothing was done to contact me at that time. I hope that you will take these informations into account and count on the scientific integrity of the Editorial Committee to correct the situation by publishing in your journal a letter 1) explaining that the authors deliberately withdrew the name of Pr. Kyurkchiev and my name 2) that our names should be associated in due place to this manuscript. Looking forward to hearing from you soon, and with my best regards Sincerely B. Perbal |
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