On 5 May 2013, Nature Nanotechnology published a research article 'DNA sequencing using electrical conductance measurements of a DNA polymerase' by G. Steven Huang and colleagues (Nature Nanotech. 8, 452–458; 2013). The work suggested that the sequence of bases in single molecules of DNA could be identified by monitoring the electrical conductance of a DNA polymerase as it incorporated unlabelled nucleotides into the DNA strand. We are now retracting this paper (Nature Nanotech. 10, 563; 2015).

Shortly after publication, concerns were raised about the validity of the data by a number of researchers in the community. After evaluating the concerns carefully, we contacted the authors' institution, the National Chiao Tung University, and asked them to launch a formal investigation into the case. An editorial note about the paper was also published in the journal at this time (Nature Nanotech. 8, 781; 2013). The university focused their investigation on the reproducibility of the data. The authors could not reproduce the results of the work within the timeframe set by the investigating committee, and could not provide the committee with a complete set of raw data for the original experiments. In light of this, the authors agreed to retract the paper.

The retraction serves to correct the scientific record, and in writing this editorial we wanted to acknowledge the efforts of those researchers who voiced their scientific concerns and made this possible. They were, in particular, Vincent Croquette of the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris; Stuart Lindsay of Arizona State University; Philip Collins of the University of California, Irvine; Marija Drndic of the University of Pennsylvania; Jens Gundlach of the University of Washington; Brett Gyarfas of Arizona State University; Meni Wanunu of Northeastern University; Mark Akeson of the University of California, Santa Cruz; Kate Lieberman of the University of California, Santa Cruz; and Stephen Turner of Pacific Biosciences. All of the researchers named here have chosen not to remain anonymous.

Pre-publication peer review is a vital component of our publication process, providing both a technical assessment of a piece of work and an evaluation of its wider significance. In cases where issues do arise after publication, we are indebted to the researchers who choose to get involved. Indeed, it is the efforts of the research community that enable our peer review, and it is the efforts of the same research community that help us to correct the publication record when that is needed. The retraction is a clear reminder that the process of evaluating a paper does not end when the work is published.