Science Retracts Hwang’s Papers

The U.S. scientific journal Science, which published papers on stem cell cloning by Hwang Woo-suk and his colleagues at Seoul National University (SNU), announced it retracted the two papers yesterday.

Science posted a statement in the name of editor Donald Kennedy on the “Science Express” section of its website (www.sciencemag.org), where it announced that it “unconditionally retracts the two published papers on the basis of the final report from the Investigation Committee of Seoul National University.”

The statement also added that six out of 15 co-authors of the 2004 paper and all the 25 co-authors of the 2005 paper agreed on the retraction of the papers.

Science will investigate those involved in the verification of the two papers to figure out how the papers passed its verification process.

Yoon-Jong Yoo gustav@donga.com