RETRACTED ARTICLE: Magnesium-Zinc-Calcium-Vitamin D Co-supplementation Improves Hormonal Profiles, Biomarkers of Inflammation and Oxidative Stress in Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: a Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial

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 A149 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and publishers were notified of these concerns in July 2019. 18 publications have an expression of concern, and 6 have been retracted.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

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Retracted [19 November 2022](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12011-022-03465-3). The Editors-in-Chief have retracted this article. After publication, several concerns have been raised about the integrity of this article. The article overlaps with another publication by the same author group [1] in terms of reported study timelines, location and sample size, but there is no cross-referencing. The following discrepancies were noted between the two studies: * This article does not mention any metformin treatment, whereas [1] reports that participants were taking 500 mg of metformin per day, increasing to 1500 mg/day over the first 3 weeks. * This article does not mention stratification in the article, whereas [1] indicates that participants were matched for BMI, age, phenotypes A and D and then randomized. * Smokers are only listed as an exclusion criterion in the current article. In addition, this article appears to contain some data errors. * Under the “Study Design” section, it is stated that “Forty PCOS women were randomized (…)”, however, the article describes 60 participants elsewhere. * In the first paragraph of the “Results” section, it is erroneously stated that 60 participants in each group completed the trial. Furthermore, the authors had previously published studies which reported that zinc and selenium supplementation improved clinical outcomes in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) [2, 3]. As this clinical trial includes a placebo-controlled arm, concerns have been raised that potential beneficial treatments known to authors appear to have been withheld from this treatment group. An investigation into all the concerns was conducted by the National Committee for Ethics in Biomedical Research (NREC), Ministry of Health and Medical Education. The NREC concluded that there is insufficient evidence that the data was fabricated based on the summary statistics. In line with Iranian legal requirements, the results of their investigation were sent to the Kashan University of Medical Sciences (KAUMS) research ethics committee where Dr. Asemi is based. Of the specific concerns raised in relation to this article, the institution and authors confirmed that both this article and [1] were part of the same project, including inclusion and exclusion criteria, metformin treatment, and stratification. The authors stated that the two studies were differentiated by selecting different primary outcomes based on different biochemical variables. Further, the authors would like to correct the error within their article and confirm that the study included a total of 60 participants. The Editors have determined that the conclusions of this study are unreliable due to omissions in the description of the trial and the selective analysis of the same data set which was presented earlier in [1]. The authors Mehri Jamilian and Zatollah Asemi disagree with this retraction. The author Maryam Maktami has not responded to correspondence regarding this retraction. **References** * [1] Jamilian M, Maktabi M, Asemi Z (2017) A trial on the effects of magnesium-zinc-calcium-vitamin D co-supplementation on glycemic control and markers of cardio-metabolic risk in women with polycystic ovary syndrome. Arch Iran Med 20(10):640–645 * [2] Jamilian M et al (2016) Effects of zinc supplementation on endocrine outcomes in women with polycystic ovary syndrome: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Biol Trace Elem Res 170(2):271–278 * [3] Razavi M et al (2016) Selenium supplementation and the effects on reproductive outcomes, biomarkers of inflammation, and oxidative stress in women with polycystic ovary syndrome. Horm Metab Res 48(3):185–190

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