Jillian Goldfarb, associate professor of chemical engineering at Cornell University, New York, USA, resigned from her position as Co-Editor-in-Chief of Elsevier Journal Fuel and published this LinkedIn post on 21 October 2023:
“I had aspirations to lead the #fuel science field as the first female Principal #Editor (Americas) of the journal Fuel.
Today, when Elsevier informed me of the plan to consolidate regional offices under one Editor-in-Chief who tows their line towards profit, I #resigned my position.
I did so for three reasons.
First, the publisher’s rationale that Fuel needs one point person to manage increasing “ethics issues” is farcical.
🚫 The Elsevier ethics team never moved on dozens of papers published in Fuel for which I raised serious concerns about paper-milling that were overseen by another Principal Editor.
🚫 They hired a Principal Editor (Asia) for Fuel who was engaged in paper and citation milling and swept it under the rug when he was terminated.
🚫 They proposed potential Associate Editor (AE) candidates who had no publications, people with longer @PubPeer profiles and more retractions than most people have articles on their CVs, and people whose names appear as authors on papers-for-sale websites.
🔥 This tells me, our community, and the public, that they value article quantity and profit over science.
Second, with the closure of the Asia office my workload increased from my contractual ~2,000 papers/yr to >6,000.
🙇🏻♀️ My staff to handle this load comprised 3 Associate Editors – two US-based women and one man from the Global South.
🙇🏻♀️ My co-Principal Editor had more than double my staff to handle his ~8,000 papers per year.
🙇🏻♀️ I repeatedly requested more staff and an increase in my honorarium as I did not increase my AE’s workload … I took it on myself.
🔥 Elsevier’s refusal of both requests told me that they value the time of a male editor more than a female editor.
Finally, Elsevier’s choice of Editor-in-Chief because of his “seniority” is sexist and bias.
🚫 It condones the behavior of this privileged white man who routinely sent me condescending emails that Elsevier themselves said were inappropriate and must stop.
🚫 It values his role and contribution to the field more than a woman’s. Seniority is code for “man” in this field.
🔥 This says to me – and every other woman working in fuel science – that nothing has changed in the past century.
I thank you all for your support over the past few years in this role. I have especially loved helping our #graduate student authors and learning from all of you.
With my newly freed up time, I’m going to focus more efforts on helping to build an #inclusive #STEM community here on LinkedIn and beyond. I hope you’ll join me!
I hope that you can understand and support this decision. If you’re interested in learning more about my decision, I’ve attached a (names redacted) version of my resignation letter.”
This letter to Elsevier was attached to the LinkedIn post as image file:
Here it is as text:
20 October 2023
Dear Elsevier Publishing,
When I accepted the position as Principal Editor (Americas) of Fuel, I had high hopes of continuing the journal’s 100-year tradition of leading the fuel science field as its first female Principal Editor.
Over the past year, however, Elsevier has shown a complete lack of commitment to publishing ethics. For example:
- In January 2023, you hired a Principal Editor (PE, Asia) for Fuel who was engaged in paper and citation milling. Yet, you seemed surprised when this came to light, despite the obvious signs. You left the Fuel Editors to field emails and calls from the media as you quietly allowed the Asia PE to resign the position to make this ethics blunder disappear.
- To address a severe shortage of editorial staff in Fuel following the contraction of the Asia office, in June your office provided a list of “vetted” potential Associate Editors (AEs) for me to review. Among these candidates that you “vetted” were people with no expertise in the field (either 0 or 1 publication), people with longer PubPeer profiles and more retractions than most people have articles on their CVs, and people whose names appear as authors on sold paper sites. I provided documented evidence of all of this to you.
- At the Bioresource Technology Board meeting this past year, the Editors and Editorial Manager called for more review articles to boost citations. They openly asked editorial board members to write review articles that would “leverage” BITE’s great content (read: cite papers in our journal). This open call for citation scamming opened my eyes to unethical practices that the editorial team has been following for years.
- I have flagged dozens of papers published in Fuel that were suspected paper milling products and provided evidence thereof. Most of these papers were managed by Guest Editors and were all overseen by other co-Principal Editors. No action – not even a follow-up from the ethics team – was taken on any paper.
Personally, Elsevier has failed me in its diversity, equity and inclusion practices in three significant ways.
- You were consistently willing to “look the other way” as my co-Principal Editor routinely sent me condescending emails. Your September 2023 communication over Zoom that this person had received “his last warning and further such behavior would not be tolerated” clearly demonstrates that you understand his harassment and treatment was reprehensible. And yet, you took no action (except promote him).
- After the Asia Editor’s termination in January my workload increased from <2,000 papers/yr to >6,000. My staff to handle this load comprised 3 AEs – two women and one person from the Global South. My co-Principal Editor had more than double my staff to handle his ~8,000 papers per year. I repeatedly requested more staff and an increase in my honorarium as I did not increase my AE’s workload but did it myself. Your refusal of both requests is clear evidence that you value the work of a male editor more than a female editor.
- Over the past 4 weeks as I have been recovering from major orthopedic surgery your staff has continued to inundate me with new assignments, emails about paper status, etc., despite my clear instructions that I was on medical leave for a few weeks. The lack of response to this by our publishing manager showed clear disrespect for my disability.
Your decision to “consolidate” the three editorial offices under one Editor-in-Chief, my Co-Principal Editor, under the rationale of his “seniority” is a heinous example of sexism and bias. It condones the behavior of a privileged white man and values his role and contribution to the field more than a woman’s. Your choice of him as Editor-in-Chief says to me – and every other woman working in fuel science – that nothing has changed in the past century.
Your rationale that the journal needs one point person to manage the increasing “ethics issues” and that he is the person is farcical given the number of articles that he personally oversaw with ethics concerns and tells me, the fuel community, and the public that you value article quantity and profit over science.
Please consider this my resignation, effective immediately, as (1) Principal Editor of Fuel and(2) Editorial Board Member of Bioresource Technology, Bioresource Technology Letters and Journal of Supercritical Fluids.
Sincerely,
Jillian Goldfarb, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University
Fellow of the American Chemical Society
What happened?
Well, you read about a certain “Principal Editor (PE, Asia) for Fuel who was engaged in paper and citation milling” and whom Elsevier hired to further boost Fuel‘s revenue and impact factor (currently at 7.4), and then quietely let go. This man is Anh Tuan Hoang.
Here is the celebratory reporting about Hoang’s recruitment, dated 23 January 2023 and translated from Vietnamese:
“Associate Professor-Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan (43 years old), lecturer at University of Technology , has officially become the Editor-in-Chief of Fuel , a journal in the list of ISI, Q1 with IF = 8,035, under the Publishing House, world leader Elsevier.
Sharing with PV of Thanh Nien Newspaper , from Spain, Associate Professor-Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan confirmed: “On January 12, I just signed a contract with Mr. Louise Glenn, Director of Elsevier Publishing House, to take on the role of Editor-in-Chief of Elsevier Publishing House journal Fuel. The mission of this position is to maintain the mission and reputation of the journal, with primary responsibility for selecting articles to be published in the journal on the basis of new, original, and high-profile contributions, important for knowledge of fuel science”.”
A few days later, same Louise Glenn assured me it wasn’t her who installed Hoang:
“I can confirm I did not select Dr Hoang for this role, nor have any oversight of or responsibility for that decision.”
nvcc” Source
Oh, and if you wonder what was Hoang doing in Spain? Meeting the Highly Cited Researcher and the king of papermilling citation-trading cheaters Rafael Luque of course, as the article documents with a photo. As a side note, Luque was soon after sacked by his Spanish employer, the University of Cordoba, for his papermilling and for taking Saudi Arabian money (presumably without sharing).
I wrote about Hoang’s appointment in earlier Friday Shorts, and here is the story again. For starters, look at this paper in Fuel:
C. Prabhu , B. Navaneetha Krishnan , T. Prakash , V. Rajasekar , Dhinesh Balasubramanian , Van Vang Le , Nguyen Viet Linh Le , Phuoc Quy Phong Nguyen , Van Nhanh Nguyen Biodiesel unsaturation and the synergic effects of hydrogen sharing rate on the characteristics of a compression ignition engine in dual-fuel mode Fuel (2023) doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2022.126699
“The citation behavior in this article is unusual. There are 59 of 141 (42%) references with the author Anh Tuan Hoang. The rules for omitting authors in references are inconsistent. I found this article because Alexander Magazinov mentioned the findings of his investigation.”
Parashorea tomentella on PubPeer
In January 2023 Hoang was appointed as the new Editor-in-Chief (Asia-Pacific region) of Fuel, to complement the other two: Bill Nimmo and Jillian Goldfarb. Nimmo features prominently in Goldfarb’s resignation letters above, he is the one who writes condescending emails and who received from Elsevier “his last warning and further such behavior would not be tolerated”, just before Elsevier sanctioned him with a promotion as Goldfarb’s boss.
You will be paid US $500-800 for each paper
“Or The author can also put your name to the article to increase your academic popularity, such as adding your name to the second or third author.”
So what were his qualifications with which Hoang convinced Elsevier? As you probably suspect, it is papermilling and running citation rings (or buying citations, or extorting them). Here are Hoang’s earlier Elsevier activities:
Bhaskor J Bora , Thanh Dai Tran , Krushna Prasad Shadangi , Prabhakar Sharma , Zafar Said , Pankaj Kalita , Abdulrajak Buradi , Van Nhanh Nguyen , Hakeem Niyas , Minh Tuan Pham , Chau Thanh Nguyen Le , Viet Dung Tran , Xuan Phuong Nguyen Improving combustion and emission characteristics of a biogas/biodiesel-powered dual-fuel diesel engine through trade-off analysis of operation parameters using response surface methodology Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.seta.2022.102455
“The citation behavior in this article is unusual. There are 41 of 110 (37%) references with the author Anh Tuan Hoang.”
Parashorea tomentella
Same journal, impact factor 7.6, Editor-in-Chief is a “Ioannis Ieropoulos, B.Eng (Hons), M.Sc (BRIS), PhD/Professor” from University of Southampton in UK:
Viet Duc Bui , Hoang Phuong Vu , Hoang Phuong Nguyen , Xuan Quang Duong , Dinh Tuyen Nguyen , Minh Tuan Pham , Phuoc Quy Phong Nguyen Techno-economic assessment and logistics management of biomass in the conversion progress to bioenergy Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments (2023) doi: 10.1016/j.seta.2022.102991
Alexander Magazinov noted:
“This review paper consists of about 12 pages of core text in which 408 references are accommodated. At least 69 of those are to the work of a certain AT Hoang.
Sometimes Hoang’s authorship is obscured. Here, at the cost of distorted authorship order:
[68] Jeyakumar N, Balasubramanian D, Kamaraj S, Pandian PL, et al. Experimental investigation on simultaneous production of bioethanol and biodiesel from macro-algae. Fuel 2022;329:125362. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2022.125362. [Nagarajan Jeyakumar, Anh Tuan Hoang, Sandro Nižetić, Dhinesh Balasubramanian, Sriram Kamaraj, Prakash Lakshmana Pandian, Ranjna Sirohi, Phuoc Quy Phong Nguyen, Xuan Phuong Nguyen]
And here, by providing an incomplete list of authors, even without “et al.”
[75] Bu VG, Le AT, Le VV. Combustion and emission characteristics of spark and compression ignition engine fueled with 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF): A comprehensive review. Fuel 2021;288:119757. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2020.119757. [Anh Tuan Hoang, Sandro Nižetić, Van Viet Pham, Anh Tuan Le, Van Ga Bui, Van Vang Le]”
The Highly Cited Researchers of Clarivate
“here is my advice to Clarivate: better get lost. ” – Alexander Magazinov
Also this is Elsevier, note the “coauthor”, the Highly Cited Researcher and papermilling citation trader Changhe Li:
Zafar Said , Prabhakar Sharma , L. Syam Sundar , Changhe Li , Duy Cuong Tran , Nguyen Dang Khoa Pham , Xuan Phuong Nguyen Improving the thermal efficiency of a solar flat plate collector using MWCNT-Fe3O4/water hybrid nanofluids and ensemble machine learning Case Studies in Thermal Engineering (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.csite.2022.102448
“The citation behavior in this article is unusual. There are 31 of 79 (39%) references with the author Anh Tuan Hoang.“
Parashorea tomentella
There is much more, visit PubPeer. This one is not in Elsevier, but some obscure and possibly predatory publisher called “ejournal”:
Quoc Bao Doan , Xuan Phuong Nguyen , Van Viet Pham , Thi Minh Hao Dong , Minh Tuan Pham , Tan Sang Le Performance and Emission Characteristics of Diesel Engine Using Ether Additives: A Review International Journal of Renewable Energy Development (2022) doi: 10.14710/ijred.2022.42522
“The citation behavior in this article is unusual. There are 71 of 165 (43%) references with the author Anh Tuan Hoang. The rules for omitting authors in references are inconsistent. Reference 14 and 16, 102 and 105 are duplicated.“
Parashorea tomentella
And here is the long list of papers with bought or extorted citations to Hoang, collated by Maarten van Kampen:
In January 2023, Goldfarb posted this comment under my Friday Shorts article regarding Hoang’s appointment:
“As Principal Editor (Americas) of Fuel, I learned this past week that Dr Hoang was named Principal Editor for the Asia Region. Editors are appointed by the publisher (Elsevier); I was not consulted about or aware of this appointment prior to its announcement.
I want to assure our authors and readers that I take these concerns very seriously and will do everything I can to ensure transparency, equity, and adherence to the highest standards of professional ethics in Fuel.
Elsevier has already begun investigating these allegations, and I will be in touch with the publishing team regularly until this matter is resolved.“
Nimmo also insisted in his email to me:
“For the record I, like Dr Goldfarb, I was not consulted or involved in the appointment“
Hard to believe in Nimmo’s case though.
The incredible collaborations of Renaissance men and women
Nick Wise and Alexander Magazinov on the authorships-for-sale market on social media. Merely $700 for the 7th position on some paper way outside your expertise!
On 5 May 2023, Vietnamese news reported that Hoang was prevented from taking the chief editor position. Our hero is quoted (Google-translated):
“”After a period of work, due to too much work pressure, with more than 500 articles to be delivered in a month, I couldn’t do anything other than make a preliminary assessment and give feedback.
Usually, at least 10 reviewers need to be invited because the majority of reviewers decline the invitation for various reasons, making the work very stressful…
Under the work pressure as well as the role of editor-in-chief, I realized that I could not continue to take on the position of editor-in-chief of a large magazine like Fuel, so I withdrew from that position,” added Mr. Tuan.”
The article quotes Jason Chan, Elsevier’s communication manager, and I was also privy to his message:
“Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan was recently appointed as editor of FUEL but was subsequently removed from that role. As results of an on-going investigation are still pending, we are unable to provide further information.”
In August 2023, another Vietnamese article reported that “candidate Hoang Anh Tuan was disqualified and was not recommended” by his university for the application as Associate Professor, and:
“after the faculty council of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology announced the candidate profile for the title of Professor, there were many letters denouncing Mr. Hoang Anh Tuan of “having no ethics in scientific research”
But for Elsevier, the eminent scholar Hoang (who received his PhD in 2016) was perfectly qualified as chief editor.
As I already mentioned, the “privileged white man who routinely sent [Goldbarb] condescending emails” is the Fuel‘s current sole Editor-in-Chief Bill Nimmo, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Sheffield in UK. When confronted with Goldfarb’s resignation letter, Nimmo replied with this condescending email:
“Leonid,
Jillian made the wrong decision when she resigned.“
As a reminder, at least for Nimmo: Dr Goldfarb is not a schoolgirl, but a professor.
In January 2023, Alexander Magazinov sent Goldfarb and Nimmo a list of problematic papers in Fuel, which most likely originate from papermills.
The papers on the list were described by Magazinov as follows:
- Citation games by AT Hoang” – you are now well aware of what it means, since this is what sparked the correspondence.
- “Unwarranted citations to C Li” – Changhe Li is known to have amassed lots of irrelevant citations that earned him the status of “Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher.” A disproportionate majority is coming from Elsevier’s energy-related venues, which may have something to do with those management persons responsible for hiring Hoang. See also results for the relevant PubPeer keyphrase: https://pubpeer.com/search?q=%22a+certain+c+li%22“
- Irrelevant citation to NJ Vickers as a sign of papermill origin” – see this entertaining post on Leonid’s blog
When I’m citing you, will you answer too?
What do moth pheromones on one side have to do with cancer research, petrochemistry, materials science, e-commerce, psychology, forestry and gynaecology on the other? They are separated by just one citation!
Irrelevant citations went not just to AT Hoang and CH Li, but also to other papermillers. Like here, where last “author” Patrice Estelle is associate professor at Université Rennes 1 in France:
Atiyeh Aghaei Sarvari , Saeed Zeinali Heris, Mousa Mohammadpourfard , Seyed Borhan Mousavi , Patrice Estellé Numerical investigation of TiO2 and MWCNTs turbine meter oil nanofluids: Flow and hydrodynamic properties Fuel (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2022.123943
Six irrelevant references to the notorious papermill fraudster Davood Toghraie in this study. Estelle’s papermilling authorships cannot be under-appreciated: as a white European man he provides much-needed credibility to fraudsters like Masoud Afrand, e,g. in Shahsavar et al 2022. Also: often, being white gets you papermill authorships gratis.
Wiley: Committed to integrity? Get out!
“We have initiated post-acceptance peer review with independent reviewers… ” – Wiley.
Back then, I replied in Magazinov’s email thread and pointed out to Nimmo and Goldfarb this papermilled fabrication by Luque and his protege Awais Ahmad:
Salman Raza Naqvi, Asif Hussain Khoja , Imtiaz Ali , Muhammad Naqvi , Tayyaba Noor , Awais Ahmad , Rafael Luque , Nor Aishah Saidina Amin Recent progress in catalytic deoxygenation of biomass pyrolysis oil using microporous zeolites for green fuels production Fuel (2023) doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2022.126268
“The produced bio-oil for fast pyrolysis of biomass can be used in various applications from transportation to direct combustion for power generation [21,22].”
[22] Zafar Said, Nese Keklikcioglu Cakmak, Prabhakar Sharma, L. Syam Sundar, Abrar Inayat, Orhan Keklikcioglu, Changhe Li, Synthesis, stability, density, viscosity of ethylene glycol-based ternary hybrid nanofluids: Experimental investigations and model-prediction using modern machine learning techniques. Powder Technol 2022;400:117190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2022.117190
Nimmo’s reaction was:
“Leonid,
Are you questioning my integrity?”
Yes I am Bill. I think someone who abuses his position as Editor-in-Chief to wave through papermilled fraud is a failed scientist. At best.
The Vickers Curse: secret revealed!
How did an editorial about insect pheromone communication get to receive 1200 irrelevant citations, almost all from papermills? Alexander Magazinov reveals The Secret of The Vickers Curse!
Goldfarb assured us regarding Fuel‘s papermilled products that “none of these flowed through my editorial office”. When explicitly challenged, Nimmo never denied he was responsible for Luque’s papermill fraud. Which probably shows you where the problem sits.
Here some more examples of high quality fuel research Nimmo waved through. Luque gang again, and it seems two paying authors (Saadat Majeed and Zohaib Saeed) were added without a CRediT authorship contribution after the paper was accepted:
Awais Ahmad , Shumila Shaheen , Saadat Majeed , Muhammad Pervaiz , Zohaib Saeed , Umer Younas , Muhammad Sufyan Javed , Rafael Luque, Lalitha Gnanasekaran Recent developments in metal/metalloid nanomaterials for battery applications; a comparative review Fuel (2023) doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2023.127399
Funnily, Luque eventually admitted to use ChatGPT to write his “research papers”. There are other Luque papers in Fuel, e.g. this Li et al 2023, featuring as self-citing coauthors Luque’s fellow papermillers Mohammadreza Shokouhimehr, Changlei Xia and, ta-da. Rajender S. Varma!
I, Rajender Varma, Highly Cited Researcher
“I could not comprehend the situation where a university picks up on individuals with an extraordinary and sterling performance and basically destroy one of the top European institutions. ” – Raj Varma
Does this paper look problematic, considering that the lead author Yashvir Singh had NINE retractions already, on exactly same topic of plant oils tribology, where he and his colleagues even admitted in retraction notices (e.g. here) to have never done any experiments?
Yashvir Singh , Erween Abd Rahim Michelia Champaca: Sustainable novel non-edible oil as nano based bio-lubricant with tribological investigation Fuel (2020) doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2020.118830
“…upon reviewing this particular paper, I was surprised to find several graphs that bear striking resemblance to those from the research article, titled [Tribological studies on chemically modified rapeseed oil with CuO and CeO2 nanoparticles], which was published in [Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part J: Journal of Engineering Tribology], Volume [230], Issue [12], on [5 August 2016]. The graphs in question are from Figure 5: Variation of coefficient of friction with time for: (a) raw oil and epoxy oil; (b) epoxy oil with CuO nanoparticles; (c) epoxy oil with ceria (CeO2) nanoparticles in the journal Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part J: Journal of Engineering Tribology, and from Figure 8: . Coefficient of friction with (a) raw Michelia Champaca oil and epoxidized oil (b) nano lubricants published in the journal Fuel. The friction trends are exactly the same. Upon further analysis, it became evident that not only were the graphs copied, but they were also manipulated to present the authors’ own conclusions and findings.”
(moderated PubPeer comment)
ow about this nonsense, by the papermiller Kathirvel Brindhadevi (who has more papers in Fuel, Liu et al 2024, Wang et al 2024):
Xuan Wang , Abeer S. Aloufi , Beata Gavurová , Quynh Hoang Le , Kathirvel Brindhadevi Assessment of noise and vibration characteristics of Botryococcus braunii microalgae and hydrogen blends in internal combustion engines for highway vehicles Fuel (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2023.129502
33, but the picture of a molecule nearby is definitely not cerium (III) oxide. Moreover, nowhere in the text cerium (III) oxide is even mentioned, except for title of ref. [18].” Reference 18 goes to another papermilled product in Fuel, co-“authored” by same Slovakian professor, Beata Gavurova.
Nothing gets retracted, thank Elsevier and Nimmo for that. Even this blatantly double-published paper, recycling one from 2018 by the same authors without proper citation:
Mina Mehregan, Mohammad Moghiman Experimental investigation of the distinct effects of nanoparticles addition and urea-SCR after-treatment system on NOx emissions in a blended-biodiesel fueled internal combustion engine Fuel (2020) doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2019.116609
Even clear-cut fraud, flagged in February 2022, remains standing:
Juan Yang , Jingyi Hao , Jianping Wei , Jun Dai , Yao Li Visible-light-driven selective oxidation of methane to methanol on amorphous FeOOH coupled m-WO3 Fuel (2020) doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2020.117104
Some very fresh fraud from Pakistan and Qatar:
Tauseef Munawar , Ambreen Bashir , Muhammad Shahid Nadeem , Faisal Mukhtar , Sumaira Manzoor , Muhammad Naeem Ashiq , Shoukat Alim Khan , Muammer Koc , Faisal Iqbal Scalable synthesis of MOF-derived Nd2O3@C and V2O5@C nanohybrid: Efficient electrocatalyst for OER in alkaline medium Fuel (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2023.129485
Left, Alexander Magazinov: “Fig. 9c: repetitive elements in an XRD pattern. Full figure is also given for the reader’s reference.“
This Indian self-citation vehicle (note two French “co-authors” from Le Mans University!) was handled by Nimmo and investigated by Elsevier, because it cited two clearly papermilled and plagiarised forgeries, all three by the same “author” Sunita Varjani (Yaashikaa et al 2020 and Saravanan et al 2020).
Megha Mourya , Mohd. Jahir Khan , Ankesh Ahirwar , Benoit Schoefs , Justine Marchand , Anshuman Rai , Sunita Varjani , Karthik Rajendran , J. Rajesh Banu , Vandana Vinayak Latest trends and developments in microalgae as potential source for biofuels: The case of diatoms Fuel (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2021.122738
The Elsevier journal manager however informed the authors:
“There is no need to publish a Corrigendum for the FUEL paper. Removing the two problematic papers from the list of 249 references of the FUEL paper does not fundamentally change the quality of the FUEL paper.”
Indeed, none of these 249 references probably makes any sense anyway, except as citation vehicles.
And this well-referenced beauty? Its second author is the bizarre papermill fraudster and industrial citations pusher Fuad Ameen (read about him here):
T. Joseph Antony Sundarsingh , Fuad Ameen, J. Ranjitha , Somasundaram Raghavan , Vijayalakshmi Shankar Engineering microbes for sustainable biofuel production and extraction of lipids – Current research and future perspectives Fuel (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2023.129532
Magazinov found more suspect papers, hot off Nimmo’s press. Mostly on carbon-neutral biofuels of course, how kind of the papermillers to think of environment and climate change! For example:
- Arun et al 2024, “New insights into microbial electrolysis cells (MEC) and microbial fuel cells (MFC) for simultaneous wastewater treatment and green fuel (hydrogen) generation” (doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2023.129530) authors from India, Vietnam, Canada and uSA, led by papermiller Arivalagan Pugazhendhi, whose papers are full of fake data.
- Liu et al 2024, “Enhancing the mixing characteristics of multi-hydrogen jets in scramjet engines through the implementation of fuel injection strategies and vortex generator positioning” (doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2023.129466) – International “collaboration” citing papermill fraudsters Gerdroodbary, Sheikholeslami and Pugazhendhi
- Saravanan et al 2024, “Waste bull bone based reusable and biodegradable heterogeneous catalyst for alternate fuel production from WCO, and investigation of its usability as fuel substitute” (doi 10.1016/j.fuel.2023.129436)- among other shady coauthors, papermiller Prabhakar Sharma, seen together with Anh Tuan Hoang, Changhe Li (Sharma et al 2023) and Abhijit Dey (Ivy et al 2023, read about Dey here)
- Ramalingam et al 2024, “Biomass and waste derived silica, activated carbon and ammonia-based materials for energy-related applications – A review” (doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2023.129490) – again with the papermiller Saravanan Rajendran and Luque associate Lalitha Gnanasekaran.
- Lu et al 2024, “Production and utilization of the Chlorella vulgaris microalgae biochar as the fuel pellets combined with mixed biomass” (doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2023.129395) – “authors” from China, India, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, led by papermiller and citation scammer Changlei Xia (do appreciate “The data that has been used is confidential” in Wu et al 2022)
- Sun et al 2024, “Predicting steady-state biogas production from waste using advanced machine learning-metaheuristic approaches” (doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2023.129493) – “The variable selection was carried out using the cuckoo optimization algorithm (COA)“
More fake stuff in the Fuel list assembled by Maarten van Kampen below.
Magazinov forwarded all the above discussed papers and more to Goldfarb, who contacted the authors and informed her managering contacts Elsevier in early 2023. But for some reason, Sarah Jenkins, Elsevier’s Director of Research Integrity & Publishing Ethics Centre of Expertise, misinformed the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in an email from 20 June 2023:
“I am confirming that the Publisher was not aware of the concerns raised last March about the article flagged by Dr Magazinov in Fuel. We have started an investigation.”
A few weeks later, Jenkins apparently announced to COPE that she’ll be investigating… Goldfarb?
“I don’t have a record of the case, but I have reached out to the Publisher of the journal to enquire. I shall let you know if action has been taken on this concern. And if not, my team will investigate and respond.“
I thank all my donors for supporting my journalism. You can be one of them!
Make a one-time donation:
I thank all my donors for supporting my journalism. You can be one of them!
Make a monthly donation:
Choose an amount
Or enter a custom amount
Your contribution is appreciated.
Your contribution is appreciated.
DonateDonate monthly
For Better Science 
In August 2023, another Vietnamese article reported that “candidate Hoang Anh Tuan was disqualified and was not recommended” by his university for the application as Associate Professor […]
Apparently, Queen’s University Belfast has less rigorous checks for integrity. So there you go:
https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/persons/anh-tuan-hoang (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20231024054147/https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/persons/anh-tuan-hoang)
Of specific interest is the role of Aoife Foley in this recruitment.
LikeLike
After an email exchange, it has transpired, that a different AT Hoang is employed at Belfast. The “Plaintext” paper on the above profile is his, two other Hoang-Foley papers are by the Vietnamese cheater and added to that profile by mistake.
On top of that, Aoife Foley denies involvement in one of her two papers with Hoang.
What a mess!
LikeLike
“Hi Guys,
I suggest that you do not respond to Leonid Schneider. He is well known in academic harasser on the web. “
Aoife Foley
LikeLike
More by Aoife about me:
“When is started first, and they realised o was a female I was hounded!”
Funnily, she sounded exactly the opposite towards me when we last communicated in January 2023. That’s what papermilling does to your brain, folks.
Reported to Dr Foley, EiC of Elsevier’s Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews in August 2022, no action:
https://pubpeer.com/publications/5CBE8C85B3D90305AE52AEDD641220
Reported in Nov 2022:
https://pubpeer.com/publications/F98671CA1B6E8568575A8AE71B68A3
Ashutosh Tiwari;
https://pubpeer.com/publications/1E447B28B552301D6A9391E970F1CE
LikeLike
Again, Dr Foley’s Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
https://pubpeer.com/publications/1C6C4477EF26F22E111709FF91E0CC
“Calling molar fractions “Molly ratio” and (perhaps) standard molar Gibbs energy as “Standard Molly Gourmet” is a dead giveaway that the journal’s reviewing standards and procedures should be reconsidered.”
https://pubpeer.com/publications/3EC89C7D236CA8510A714B244E418E
“attractive reverberation”, “concoction response” and “rhapsody simulation”? Really?
https://pubpeer.com/publications/5CBE8C85B3D90305AE52AEDD641220
Mohammad J. Taherzadeh:
“We have looked at our files (original and revised versions). While we indeed apologies for language error (if a reader thinks so), this has not at all been intentional. The changes occurred during the manuscript revision, which were based on the reviewers’ request to add separate sub-headings 4.3 and also cite particular references. In addition, the requested professional language correction during the revision resulted in those phrases (specific terms mentioned by you as ‘“tortured”). We are sure that you would agree that the language is always open for interpretation, even for natives and experts with fluency.”
LikeLike
Our Anh Tuan Hoang has a new job as vice principal of Dong A University, from where he threatens to deploy lawyers against his critics.
https://tuoitre.vn/nha-xuat-ban-giau-thong-tin-ong-hoang-tuan-anh-bi-loai-tong-bien-tap-tu-chuc-2023102610494518.htm
“Mr. Tuan responded via email: “Currently, I have not received any official information or documents from the relevant agencies on the issues raised by the newspaper. I have not received any official information or requests. information from the governing body, so it is not possible to answer immediately.”
At the same time, Mr. Tuan said he would authorize his lawyer to represent and respond to related issues. “
“Talking to Tuoi Tre Online , Dr. Nguyen Thi Anh Dao – principal of Dong A University – said: “Currently the school has no official information related to Mr. Hoang Anh Tuan being accused of violating scientific integrity. ” .
Mr. Tuan has only been working at our school for a few weeks, and is not in charge of scientific research. Before Mr. Tuan returned to school, I didn’t know clearly if he had committed any violations, but if there were any mistakes, he had to correct them.
I always support clarifying and preventing unethical behavior in science. A teacher without academic integrity should not teach students. The school has just issued a notice reminding lecturers that if they violate scientific integrity, they will be changed jobs and severely punished.” “
LikeLike
Coincidently, yesterday I sent to Elsevier a list of papers I had already notified them in the last two years. These papers are filled with he most ridicolous fraud you can imagine. NOTHING has been done in 2 years for ANY of them.
Elsevier is even worse than Frontiers. The latter occasionally retracts, Elsevier does nothing at all. Once more: honest scientists MUST boycott Elsevier.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Great step of the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Elsevier Journal Fuel, Jillian Goldfarb!
I hope that only all we, for whom integrity in research and publishing ethics is not a matter of just abstract words, together can at least oppose common sense to the reigning entropy of academic/research fraud in fact sponsored by unscrupulous publishers and editors.
Unfortunately, using the guise of Ethics and Integrity, Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in fact supports publishers who openly and brazenly violate the rules written on the pages of COPE. Thus, the rules exist only to be written, and those who write them indeed support those who violate them. Looks an oxymoron? Yes, looks, but not only looks, it is so indeed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, an insurance against fraud complicity accusations. It is mainly for the general public that will not dig in the dirt and will readily take the COPE bait.
LikeLiked by 1 person
https://pubpeer.com/publications/59E7D594238C944227B691F9D733A1
Anh Tuan Hoang? Check! Review? Check!
Freshly printed drivel in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. Reads like a product of GPT, and probably is one indeed.
But 388 papers won’t cite themselves, so there.
LikeLike
“Received 24 May 2023, Revised 10 September 2023, Accepted 30 September 2023,”
But look, Dr Foley told us in January 2023 she took care of AT Hoang!
“As I said I flagged-up some concerns I had last few months to my Publishing Manager and she immediately raised internally, so all is in hand. As we say in Ireland, you need to be up early in the morning to spot some people.”
And she sent us a huge check list whcih includes everything except DO NOT TAKE PAPERMILLED CITATION-VEHICLE NONSENSE FROM KNOWN FRAUDSTERS.
LikeLike
There we go, a respectful decision not to participate in scientific fraud is wrong.
Don’t rock the boat with authors, reviewers, editors and publishers inside or you will end overboard. They are still too many and heavy from inflated IF-s and H-indices to be overthrown.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Once Billy Nimmo had a sudden urge to cite Farooq Sher…
https://www.pubpeer.com/publications/E2D953F17A9E8F61F560A2CE16F2E2
LikeLike
Maham Tauseef , Abeera Ayaz Ansari , Asif Hussain Khoja author has email , Salman Raza Naqvi , Rabia Liaquat , William Nimmo author has email , Syed Sheraz Daood
Thermokinetics synergistic effects on co-pyrolysis of coal and rice husk blends for bioenergy production
Fuel (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2022.123685
Dear white person with European name,
Greetings of the day.
We offer you a free authorship on this papermill forgery we just purchased.
For mutual benefit!
Yours,
a bunch of fraudsters you never heard of before.
LikeLiked by 1 person
For the lack of a better commenting spot:
https://web.archive.org/web/20231029004228/https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/1743645
Yasser Vasseghian
Soongsil University
Verified peer reviews (Examples)
133 Chemosphere
50 Environmental Research
49 Chemical Engineering Journal
36 Fuel
31 Food and Chemical Toxicology
29 Environmental Science and Pollution Research
24 Case Studies in Chemical and Environmental Engineering
19 Science of the Total Environment
17 Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery
16 Process Safety and Environmental Protection
14 AEJ – Alexandria Engineering Journal
14 Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments
14 Water and Environment Journal
9 Surfaces and Interfaces
8 Applied Nanoscience
8 Environmental Pollution
LikeLike
Fun fact Jillian Goldfarb is actually a terrible person.
Just read her Rate My Professor at Cornell, Boston and New Hampshire.
I honestly would not be surprised if she was pushed to resign just because how how difficult she is to work with.
LikeLike
That’s interesting. And you are Anon because you fear retaliation from Jillian, right?
Your IP is at Cornell University. The fake email you left ( summerglau@420blaze.it) suggest you are a US English native speaker or someone well acquainted with US slang culture.
Now piss off with your trolling.
LikeLike
Nature-inspired-Iranian-Czeck papermill:
https://www.mdpi.com/2313-7673/8/8/619
https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/22/3/855
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9638618
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-14225-7
LikeLike