Retraction notice to “The impact of medically supervised injection centres on drug-related harms: A meta-analysis” [International Journal of Drug Policy Volume 59 (2018) 98-107]

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (https://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy).

This article has been retracted at the request of the Editor-in-Chief.

In light of two critical reviews received by the journal after publication (available on request), and additional commissioned independent assessments, the Journal has retracted the following paper from publication: May, T., Bennett, T. and Holloway, K. (2018) The impact of medically supervised injection centres on drug-related harms: A meta-analysis, 59: 98-107.

This action is supported by the authors’ acknowledgement of methodological weaknesses linked to the pooling of diverse outcomes into a single composite measure (authors’ response to critical reviews also available on request from the Editor). The authors have acknowledged that these analyses should not have been undertaken in this way and resulted from honest human error in the use of methods. Accordingly, the authors acknowledge that the combined effect size reported in the original paper should be discounted. Given that the composite measure was a key finding reported by the original paper, the decision to retract the paper from publication had been made, including with the consent of the authors. The journal acknowledges that the peer review process did not pick up on the specific methodological weaknesses identified post publication. The journal takes its peer review process extremely seriously. It is for this reason that the journal commissioned an independent assessment of the original paper in addition to the original peer review reports in order to assess whether to retract the paper.