Editor's Note

In 2009, Dr. Joachim Boldt published a manuscript in Anesthesia & Analgesia comparing albumin and hydroxyethyl starch priming cardiopulmonary bypass.1 A subsequent review by Landesärztekammer Rheinland-Pfalz (LÄ#K-RLP), the State Medical Association of Rheinland-Pfalz, determined that there was no IRB approval for the study. The article was retracted in December 2010.2 In response to the concerns regarding IRB approval LÄ#K-RLP investigated 103 additional manuscripts that included Dr. Boldt as a coauthor, including 23 manuscripts published in Anesthesia & Analgesia. Of these 23 articles, LÄ#K-RLP was able to verify IRB approval for only one.3 LÄ#K-RLP was unable to document IRB approval for the remaining 22 articles.4–25 Research without IRB approval is a violation of human rights. As described in our Guide for Authors,26 and a recent editorial,27Anesthesia & Analgesia requires IRB approval for all human research. There are no exceptions. The 22 manuscripts published by Dr. Boldt for which IRB approval has not been confirmed by LÄ#K-RLP are hereby retracted for unethical conduct of research. According to our publisher, the programs that link papers to retraction notices require a unique document identification number for each paper retracted. Therefore, this issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia contains 22 individual retraction notices representing the individual articles for which IRB approval has not been verified. Steven L.