Posted on behalf of K.S. Jayaraman

A leading Indian biotechnologist has demanded that a review article in Annals of Botany be retracted because his work was not cited in it. The journal’s chief editor, Pat Heslop-Harrison of the University of Leicester, has denied the charge and rejects the allegation that the journal suppressed novel ideas coming from scientists in developing countries.

Vetury Sitaramam, former head of biotechnology at the University of Pune, has nevertheless filed a formal complaint with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in Guildford, UK. The Indian watchdog agency, Society for Scientific Values, says it will voice its concern if the journal refuses to publish Sitaramam’s rebuttal without giving a good reason.

The article in question is a review of research on the role of mitochondrial respiration in drought and crop yield. In his complaint to COPE, Sitaramam alleges that his papers were left out because they challenged the need for genetic modification to create drought-tolerant plants. He also says the issue at stake is more than a simple argument over citation. “The whole point is why are alternate views to molecular breeding, especially from developing country scientists, becoming difficult to publish?” he asks. “This is an example of a growing trend of West marginalizing novel work from the East,” says Nandula Raghuram of GGS Indraprastha University in New Delhi and managing editor of the journal Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants.

Heslop-Harrison refutes any allegation that Annals of Botany suppresses ideas, and in particular does not publish ideas coming from developing country scientists. “There is no evidence whatsoever for this damaging statement,” he told Nature. “Indeed I expect we publish more important science from developing countries than many other journals.”