EXPRESSION OF CONCERN: The effects of melatonin administration on disease severity and sleep quality in children with atopic dermatitis: A randomized, double‐blinded, placebo‐controlled trial
Assessed by RV007 · Professor of Health Services Research
Assessed on 30 Oct 2025
OverallReviewer's overall integrity assessment, derived from all research questions Serious concerns
DOI 10.1111/pai.12978 (opens in new tab)
Resource ripekg:research-integrity-assessment/RIPEA08F1214EC0C80369
5 Research Questions · 33 Evidence Items
Q1.1 — Does the study have an associated retraction?
Rationale: One of the cited references has been retracted and that article includes three of the authors on the current article, including the last author (Asemi) on both articles.
Supporting Evidence (1)
Retraction NoticeSource: Retraction Watch database
Melatonin administration lowers biomarkers of oxidative stress and cardio-metabolic risk in type 2 diabetic patients with coronary heart disease: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial
10.1016/j.clnu.2025.08.014 (opens in new tab)RetractionWatch ID:Record identifier in the Retraction Watch database 67384
Rationale: Concerns/Issues About Data;Concerns/Issues about Results and/or Conclusions;Investigation by Journal/Publisher;Investigation by Third Party;Objections by Author(s);Unreliable Results and/or Conclusions
About Authors: Zatollah Asemi, Vahidreza Ostadmohammadi, Fariba Raygan, Russel Reiter, Fereshteh Bahmani
Q1.2 — Does the study have an associated expression of concern or other relevant post-publication notice?
Rationale: There is an expression of concern associated with the article.
Supporting Evidence (1)
PubPeer ThreadSource: PubPeer.com — post-publication peer review comments
https://pubpeer.com/publications/890A101E577B4460EA1A74CF9C1035 (opens in new tab)PubPeer CommentSource: PubPeer.com — a platform for post-publication peer review
There are many concerns about the integrity of 172 publications by this research group, including this one. Some of the concerns are published 1. Anaesthesia 2020;75:1683–92, see Supplementary data. This paper is A164 2. Account Res 2020;28:149-61. 3. J Clin Epidemiol 2021;131:22-29. Journals and publishers were notified of these concerns in July 2019. 18 publications have an expression of concern, and 6 have been retracted. To our knowledge there has been no public response about any of the concerns. We think these publications are unreliable
Thread: https://pubpeer.com/publications/890A101E577B4460EA1A74CF9C1035 (opens in new tab)
Q1.3 — Do other studies by the research team highlight causes for concern?
Rationale: Half the author team has multiple Retraction Watch mentions, including the last author Asemi. There are plenty of alarm bells ringing for this team.
Supporting Evidence (29)
Retraction NoticeSource: Retraction Watch database
Probiotic supplementation and the effects on weight loss, glycaemia and lipid profiles in women with polycystic ovary syndrome: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial
10.1080/14647273.2024.2373595 (opens in new tab)RetractionWatch ID:Record identifier in the Retraction Watch database 54767
Rationale: Concerns/Issues About Data;Concerns/Issues about Results and/or Conclusions;Concerns/Issues about Referencing/Attributions;Investigation by Journal/Publisher;Investigation by Third Party;Objections by Author(s);Unreliable Results and/or Conclusions;Upgrade/Update of Prior Notice(s)
About Authors: Mohsen Taghizadeh, Zatollah Asemi, Mehri Jamilian, Maryam Tajabadi-Ebrahimi, Maryam Karamali, Mohammad Memarzadeh
Retraction NoticeSource: Retraction Watch database
Effect of daily consumption of probiotic yoghurt on lipid profiles in pregnant women: a randomized controlled clinical trial
10.1080/14767058.2024.2364976 (opens in new tab)RetractionWatch ID:Record identifier in the Retraction Watch database 67044
Rationale: Concerns/Issues About Data;Concerns/Issues about Results and/or Conclusions;Investigation by Journal/Publisher;Investigation by Third Party;Objections by Author(s);Unreliable Results and/or Conclusions;Upgrade/Update of Prior Notice(s)
About Authors: Zatollah Asemi, Ahmad Esmaillzadeh
Retraction NoticeSource: Retraction Watch database
Effect of multivitamin versus multivitamin-mineral supplementation on metabolic profiles and biomarkers of oxidative stress in pregnant women: a double-blind randomized clinical trial
10.1080/14767058.2024.2364977 (opens in new tab)RetractionWatch ID:Record identifier in the Retraction Watch database 67046
Rationale: Concerns/Issues About Data;Concerns/Issues about Results and/or Conclusions;Investigation by Journal/Publisher;Investigation by Third Party;Objections by Author(s);Unreliable Results and/or Conclusions;Upgrade/Update of Prior Notice(s)
About Authors: Mohsen Taghizadeh, Zatollah Asemi, Mehri Jamilian, Mansooreh Samimi, Zohreh Tabassi, Fariba Kolahdooz
Q2.2 — Are there concerns relating to the timing or absence of study registration?
Rationale: The start of recruitment is 13th Oct 2017 from the registration document; registration was 15th Oct 2017. It's a small difference but registration was retrospective. There is clearly a discrepancy between dates in the registration and dates in the paper, which raises concerns.
Supporting Evidence (2)
Clinical Trial RegistrationSource: Clinical trial registry (e.g. ClinicalTrials.gov, ISRCTN)
Registration ID: IRCT2017082733941N12
Registry: IRCT
Registry Link: https://trialsearch.who.int/Trial2.aspx?TrialID=IRCT2017082733941N12 (opens in new tab)
Registration Date: 15 Oct 2017
Prospective:Whether the trial was registered before participant recruitment began Yes
Assessment Rationale:How INSPECT-AI determined the prospective registration status by comparing dates Comparison performed at month level. Registration: 2017-10, LLM Recruitment Start: 2017-11. Deemed prospective at month level.
Study Design EvidenceDates and timelines extracted by INSPECT-AI from the publication text
Recruitment Start: 11-2017
Recruitment Start Rationale:INSPECT-AI's reasoning for how it identified the recruitment start date Methods: 'from November to December 2017' was used as the recruitment period; November is the start date.
Recruitment End: 12-2017
Recruitment End Rationale:INSPECT-AI's reasoning for how it identified the recruitment end date Methods: 'from November to December 2017' was used as the recruitment period; December is the end date.
Study End: N/A
Study End Rationale:INSPECT-AI's reasoning for how it identified the study end date No explicit study end date is mentioned.
Overall — What is the overall integrity assessment of the study?
Rationale: There are plenty of ground for concern, but chiefly that many of the author team have a long list of retracted articles.