EXPRESSION OF CONCERN: Hugonella massiliensis gen. nov., sp. nov., Genome Sequence, and Description of a New Strictly Anaerobic Bacterium Isolated from the Human Gut

TL;DR

This paper alerts readers to ethical concerns about a study describing a new gut bacterium, Hugonella massiliensis, and its genome.

Contribution

The paper raises concerns about the adherence to French legal and ethical standards in the original research.

Findings

An Expression of Concern was issued regarding the original study on Hugonella massiliensis.

The concerns relate to potential non-compliance with French legal and ethical requirements for human subject research.

The journal is informing readers while an investigation is ongoing.

Abstract

EXPRESSION OF CONCERN: Z. Elsawi, A.H. Togo, M. Beye, G. Dubourg, C. Andrieu, N. Armstrong, M. Richez, F. di Pinto, F. Bittar, N. Labas, P.‐E. Fournier, D. Raoult, and S. Khelaifia, “Hugonella massiliensis gen. nov., sp. nov., Genome Sequence, and Description of a New Strictly Anaerobic Bacterium Isolated from the Human Gut,” by Microbiology Open 6, no. 4 (2017): e00458, https://doi.org/10.1002/mbo3.458.

This Expression of Concern is for the above article, published online on 21 March 2017 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), has been issued by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. The Expression of Concern has been agreed due to questions raised about the study's adherence to French legal and ethical requirements for research involving human subjects. The investigation into these concerns is ongoing. Therefore, the journal has decided to issue an Expression of Concern to inform and alert readers.