One year later, transcendental meditation study yanked minutes before publication still under review

A paper looking at the use of transcendental meditation to reduce the risk of heart disease, and that was put on hold just 12 minutes before its scheduled publication time, is still under review a year later.

On June 29 of last year, we brought you the news of the highly unusual — if not unprecedented — occurrence at the Archives of Internal Medicine. As we wrote then:

…12 minutes before the embargo lifted on the June 28 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, the following message went out from its press office:

“The editorial office of the Archives of Internal Medicine has made the decision not to publish,  “Stress Reduction in the Secondary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Transcendental Meditation and Health Education in African Americans,” by Schneider et al, and the accompanying Commentary by Mehta and Bairey Merz that was to post Online First at 3 PM central time today.”

The reason, as the journal and lead author Robert Schneider said then, was that it became necessary to peer review new data in the hours before the paper was scheduled to be published.

We thought we’d check on the status of the paper, since it’s been a year. Schneider tells Retraction Watch that it’s still under review.

Here’s part of what he told us last year:

Given that this study required nine years to conduct, the authors are pleased to take the additional time needed to review all relevant input and make revisions as necessary.

So another year isn’t really all that long in the scheme of things, we suppose — especially in the context of a lifetime search for enlightenment.

You can read more details in CardioBrief’s posts from last year.

Update, 1:45 p.m. Eastern, 7/3/12: Journal editor Rita Redberg tells us:

Thanks for inquiring.  I cannot comment on the paper as it was never published in the Archives and our policy is all manuscripts are confidential until publication.