Inside STAT: After retractions of two Covid-19 papers, scientists ask what went wrong

In the wake of two high-profile retractions of Covid-19 papers from the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine last week, scientists are once again asking if anything went wrong with the peer-review process and how this could have been prevented. There seemed to be some missteps with the recently retracted papers, which were pulled when experts raised issues with the database that the authors used to conduct their study. The database was rife with anomalies, such as the fact that it seemed to include data from cases in Africa, where electronic health records are rare. “Why didn’t anyone ask, where are the original data?” science consultant Elisabeth Bik shares with STAT's Sharon Begley. One way forward could be to more routinely publish reviewers' comments. “You could see how closely the reviewer looked at the paper’s statistics, methodology, et cetera,” says Bik. Read more here.