‘Zombie papers’ just won’t die. Retracted papers by notorious fraudster still cited years later

Alison Avenell spent years collecting evidence that Yoshihiro Sato, a now-deceased nutritional researcher in Japan, was among the most prolific fraudsters known to science. After journals investigated the findings by Avenell, a clinical nutritionist at the University of Aberdeen, and her colleagues, they retracted more than two dozen papers Sato had co-authored. Many had reported findings from clinical trials that could have led physicians to incorrectly treat patients suffering from osteoporosis and other disorders.

Avenell noticed many journal articles that cited one or more of the 27 retracted papers did not warn readers that they referenced tainted work. Worse, she and colleagues reported recently, Sato’s flawed findings were cited in 88 articles, published from 2003 to 2020, that are systematic reviews and clinical guidelines—potentially influential publications that often help guide medical treatments. Avenell wondered: Would the authors and editors of these papers take action if alerted to the retractions of Sato’s work?

Her team contacted the authors of 86 of the citing papers—and sometimes the editors, too. After a year, however, journals had posted notices or letters for just eight of those papers informing readers that they cited retracted work, the researchers reported in late May in Accountability in Research. In five of those cases the announcement wasn’t linked to the paper, leaving readers in the dark. (A ninth review was itself retracted.)

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