Hydroxychloroquine for COVID19: The curtains close on a comedy of errors
Assessed by RV012 · Lecturer (Teaching & Research)
Assessed on 30 Oct 2025
OverallReviewer's overall integrity assessment, derived from all research questions No concerns
DOI 10.1016/j.lana.2022.100268 (opens in new tab)
Resource ripekg:research-integrity-assessment/RIPEA1E8EFC45F75DDADC
5 Research Questions · 3 Evidence Items
Q1.1 — Does the study have an associated retraction?
Rationale: I chose this paper specifically because I knew of falsifications and scandals in the field during the pandemic. It is not surprising that one of the references was retracted, but it does show the importance of having such a tool when reviewing the evidence. Please note that the DOI is a bit odd and goes both to a commentary about this paper and the paper itself. There are no retractions reported in the journal for the main paper.
Supporting Evidence (1)
Retraction NoticeSource: Retraction Watch database
Hydroxychloroquine in the Treatment of COVID-19: A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Study
10.4269/ajtmh.1073ret (opens in new tab)RetractionWatch ID:Record identifier in the Retraction Watch database 39037
Rationale: Concerns/Issues About Data;Duplication of Data;Investigation by Journal/Publisher;Unreliable Data;Upgrade/Update of Prior Notice(s)
Q1.2 — Does the study have an associated expression of concern or other relevant post-publication notice?
Rationale: I have no concerns either.
Q1.3 — Do other studies by the research team highlight causes for concern?
Rationale: I have put unclear here because the paper has more than three authors (40 to be precise, plus a research coalition). It is unclear what the systems means by 3 authors - who is missing?
Q2.2 — Are there concerns relating to the timing or absence of study registration?
Rationale: Submission two months after recruitment started, but study continued for a long time after that. Either unclear or yes.
Supporting Evidence (2)
Clinical Trial RegistrationSource: Clinical trial registry (e.g. ClinicalTrials.gov, ISRCTN)
Registration ID: NCT04466540
Registry: ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry Link: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04466540 (opens in new tab)
Registration Date: 09-07-2020
Prospective:Whether the trial was registered before participant recruitment began No
Assessment Rationale:How INSPECT-AI determined the prospective registration status by comparing dates Registration date is after LLM recruitment start date.
Study Design EvidenceDates and timelines extracted by INSPECT-AI from the publication text
Recruitment Start: 12-05-2020
Recruitment Start Rationale:INSPECT-AI's reasoning for how it identified the recruitment start date Findings: 'From May 12, 2020 to July 07, 2021, 1372 patients were randomly allocated...' so recruitment start is 12 May 2020.
Recruitment End: 07-07-2021
Recruitment End Rationale:INSPECT-AI's reasoning for how it identified the recruitment end date Findings: 'From May 12, 2020 to July 07, 2021, 1372 patients were randomly allocated...' so recruitment finish is 07 July 2021.
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: I was not sure if if should have chosen "some concerns" instead, because of the trial being registered two months after recruitment started.