One part of the Judy Mikovitz story has come to a close today, as Science will be formally retracting the paper in which she and her collaborators linked the XMRV virus to chronic fatigue syndrome. Bruce Alberts, the Editor-in-Chief of Science, indicates that the journal's staff had "lost confidence in the Report and the validity of its conclusions" after listing many of the issues we described in our coverage: the failure of other labs to replicate the findings, a retraction of portions of the results, evidence of poor quality control, and a failure to properly disclose experimental procedures.

Despite all those obvious reasons for retraction, there appears to have still been a bit of behind-the-scenes drama. Alberts writes that "the majority of the authors have agreed in principle to retract the Report," suggesting that some of them either cannot be contacted, or are stubbornly refusing to acknowledge the paper's problems. Stranger still, the ones that are willing to retract can't agree on how to do so. "They have been unable to agree on the wording of their statement," Alberts acknowledges. "It is Science's opinion that a retraction signed by all the authors is unlikely to be forthcoming."

Given the widely publicized issues with the paper, the retraction is probably a formality at this point. But it does bring some closure to the scientific side of the story, and shifts attention to the court case between Mikovits and her former employers.