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We have compared journal responses to a specific reagent error in 31 human gene knockdown publications, namely a non-targeting or negative control nucleotide sequence that is instead predicted to target a human gene. The 31 papers published by 13 biomedical journals generated 26 published responses (14 retractions, 5 expressions of concern, 7 author corrections which included one resolved expression of concern) as well as 6 stated decisions to take no action. Variations in published responses were noted both between journals and by 4 journals that published different responses to at least 2 papers. A subset of published responses revealed conflicting explanations for the wrongly identified control reagent, despite 30\/31 papers obtaining their gene knockdown reagents from the same external supplier. Viewed collectively, different journal responses to human gene knockdown publications with a common reagent error type suggest that editorial staff require more support to interpret post-publication notifications of incorrect nucleotide sequence reagents. We propose a draft template to facilitate the communication, interpretation and investigation of published errors, including errors affecting research reagents.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1007\/s11192-021-03871-9","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,1]],"date-time":"2021-03-01T10:02:52Z","timestamp":1614592972000},"page":"3513-3534","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":19,"title":["The thin ret(raction) line: biomedical journal responses to incorrect non-targeting nucleotide sequence reagents in human gene knockdown publications"],"prefix":"10.1007","volume":"126","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8923-0587","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jennifer A.","family":"Byrne","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3162-4425","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yasunori","family":"Park","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4184-6339","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rachael A.","family":"West","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8356-0219","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Amanda","family":"Capes-Davis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3060-6241","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Bertrand","family":"Favier","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3340-7785","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Guillaume","family":"Cabanac","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4855-7038","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Cyril","family":"Labb\u00e9","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,28]]},"reference":[{"issue":"7588","key":"3871_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"27","DOI":"10.1038\/530027a","volume":"530","author":"DB Allison","year":"2016","unstructured":"Allison, D. 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