Chandra falls foul of peer review

The grinding wheels of peer review finally seem to have come around to a decision on the work of immunologist Ranjit Chandra and his 2001 paper which claimed a specific combination of vitamins and minerals significantly improved seniors' ability to think and reason. The prestigious scientific journal Nutrition this month printed a retraction citing significant statistical errors in the study as well as his 1992 study published in The Lancet.

There was also concern that "Chandra failed to declare that he holds a patent on the tested supplement formula and has a financial stake in it because the supplement was licensed to Javaan Corporation, a company founded by his daughter, that sells the supplement," Meguid wrote in the retraction. Chandra, now living in India, did not respond to E-mails seeking comment.

The paper was done when Chandra was working at Memorial University in Newfoundland and there have been sugestions that the university should do something although they say it is not their role. Spokesperson Jack Strawbridge told The Scientist. "Our point has been, all along, that we have a responsibility to create conditions that allow research to happen, but we don't vet it directly; we don't say that any piece of research done by any particular researcher should or should not be published. That's the role of the peers and the journal editors..."