Ed Pigott is the researcher who has led the investigation into the STAR*D published results, and together with his colleagues, detailed the methods that the STAR*D investigators used to inflate remission rates. Here is his opinion on this call for retraction of the 2006 paper:

“I started investigating STAR*D in 2006 and with colleagues have published six articles documenting significant scientific errors in the conduct and reporting of outcomes in the STAR*D trial.  STAR*D’s summary article should clearly be retracted.  This is perhaps best seen by the fact that its own authors lack the courage to defend it.  By rights and the norms of ethical research practice, STAR*D authors should either defend their work and point out the errors in our reanalysis or issue corrections in the American Journal of Psychiatry and New England Journal of Medicine where they published their 7 main articles.  What they can’t defend must be retracted.”