The Fujii story

In this issue of the European Journal of Anaesthesiology, the editors retract 12 articles from the Japanese anaesthetist Dr Yoshitaka Fujii (Table 1). The 12 articles are part of 183, all authored by Fujii, that have been retracted during the last few months in a variety of journals. Scientific anaesthesiology has been recently rocked by the Reuben and Boldt affairs, and Fujii represents another blow to the reputation of scientific journals. We are all shocked that this has happened again and it is perhaps appropriate to step back a moment, and critically appraise the chain of events.