Polish science eaten by Papermill Krolczyk

All of Polish academic science is now in the hands of a dishonest papermiller who will be advising the government on promotions and funds distribution – Grzegorz Królczyk.

You might recall Krolczyk the papermilling rabbit from April 2024 Shorts. Well, there are new developments, and I suggest every Polish scientist now does something to stop this PiS-taking on Polish science.

An announcement was made on 17 May 2024 (Google-translated):

“Prof. Grzegorz Królczyk, Vice-Rector for Science and Development of the Opole University of Technology, was elected President of the Council for Innovation in Higher Education and Science. This is an advisory body to the Minister of Science.

The Council was established on 13 May. Its main tasks are: identification and analysis of innovation policy issues in the field of higher education and science; review and analysis of organizational and legal solutions in the field of innovation in the field of higher education and science; developing systemic assumptions in the field of innovation policy and proposing basic directions of activities related to the development of innovations in the field of higher education and science, as well as consulting these activities with external actors.

At the head of a 12-member body stood prof. Grzegorz Królczyk, Vice-Rector for Science and Development of the Opole University of Technology. He is a member of the elite Engineering Academy in Poland, which brings together outstanding artists of Polish technology, he also works in the advisory team of the Polska Metrologia program, in the presidium of the Prorector College for Science and Public Development of Higher Technical Schools in Poland, as well as in the Committee for the Construction of Machines of the Polish Academy of Sciences. According to the ranking Research.com is the fourth scientist in Poland with the best achievements in the field of mechanical engineering. His scientific interests are focused on the subject of analysis and improvement of production processes, surface metrology and surface engineering. He is the author and manager of a research project, which resulted in the creation of one of the most modern laboratories of surface metrology at the Opole University of Poland.”

Krolczyk also has a hagiographic Wikipedia page but in reality he is a papermiller who already retracted papers for fraud. Most of the credit for investigating this case goes to Alexander Magazinov, and also to Maarten van Kampen, who both were investigating two different Elsevier journals.

Krolczyk’s two recent retractions took place in Elsevier’s Journal of Energy Storage, they were part of 100%-papermill special issue by Masoud Afrand, Nader Karimi, Mohammad Arjmand and Cong Qi, read here:

According to Magazinov, this paper was a citation vehicle to fellow papermillers including “a certain YM Chu” and the Special issue’s editor Nader Karimi:

Bo Wang , Fangyuan Gao , Munish Kumar Gupta , Grzegorz Królczyk , Paolo Gardoni , Zhixiong Li Risk analysis of a flywheel battery gearbox based on optimized stochastic resonance model Journal of Energy Storage (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.est.2022.104926 

Krolczyk’s coauthors were Paolo Gardoni, director of the NSF-funded centre for Multi-hazard Approach to Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in USA (I wrote about him before in February 2022 Shorts), a certain Munish Kumar Gupta whom you will meet again later, and a certain Zhixiong Li, affiliated with Yonsei University in Korea. According to Magazinov, Li published on all possible research fields and has “a production rate of about 100 papers per year maintained since 2019“. Li has also currently 5 retractions and a PubPeer record of papermill fraud.

Li replied on PubPeer:

“Dear Prof. Alexander Magazinov, Thank you again for your kind comment. It is very kind of you to point out this. Because these mentioned authors are very active in this research field, we have cited some of their publications. Now we know this and we are sorry for this inconvenience to you. We will pay all our attentions to avoid this in the future. We are grateful of you to let us know this problem. Please kindly forgive us this time.
Thank you again.“

An Expression of Concern was issued in December 2023, and in April 2024 the retraction arrived:

“In investigating concerns brought up regarding the article, the editor reached out to the authors for an explanation.

The authors failed to provide a satisfactory explanation to the above points. Post-publication, the Editor-in-Chief discovered that the email addresses used by the authors during the submission process were associated with multiple researcher accounts. The Editor has determined that the authorship of the paper cannot be relied upon.

Furthermore, the acceptance of this article was partly based upon the positive advice of reviewer reports from reviewers who were closely linked to the Guest Editor, Masoud Afrand.

The Editor also noticed a significant increase of citations of papers authored by one of the Guest Editors between the original submission and the revised version. In summary, 0 papers by Nader Karimi were cited in the original version of the paper. This increased to 6 papers in the revised version.

The Editor has determined that the paper should be retracted.”

Second retraction, same Special Issue, again by Krolczyk, Gardoni and Li, and another citation vehicle to the editors Karimi and Afrand, plus to several other papermilling fraudsters:

Xinrui Qi , Jianmei Wang , Grzegorz Królczyk, Paolo Gardoni , Zhixiong Li Sustainability analysis of a hybrid renewable power system with battery storage for islands application Journal of Energy Storage (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.est.2022.104682 

Also, this funny reference:

“Zyoud et al. [25] designed a recycling charging method using the combination of constant-voltage, constant-current and pulse charging technologies for the independent PV system using lead batteries in the Levant region. This technology combined traditional charging technology with new charging technology and can prevent battery aging, repair the aging battery and increase battery life [26–33].”

The reference 30 was to the famous Vickers 2017 editorial about moth pheromones – which happens due to a doi resolution bug when papermill scribes aiming to reference some Elsevier paper neglect to fix the doi syntax. Read here:

Li explained why the moth pheromone editorial had to be cited:

“Because this paper talked something about electric charging and discharging inside the animal body, when we read it at that moment we were very happy to get some new knowledge from this paper. So we cited this one because of certain inspireation from it.”

Li’s other comments were just as stupid, e.g.: “Because these mentioned authors are very active in this research field, when we searched google these were at the first in our eyes.”

The paper also received a Expression of Concern in December 2023. The retraction notice was also almost identical:

“Post-publication, the Editor-in-Chief discovered that the email addresses used by the authors during the submission process were associated with multiple researcher accounts. The Editor has determined that the authorship of the paper cannot be relied upon.

Furthermore, the acceptance of this article was based upon the positive advice of reviewer reports from reviewers who were closely linked to the Guest Editor, Masoud Afrand.

The Editor also noticed a significant increase of citations of papers authored by two of the Guest Editors between the original submission and the revised version. In summary, 0 papers by Nader Karimi were cited in the original version of the paper. This increased to 6 papers in the revised version. Likewise, 0 papers by Masoud Afrand were cited in the original version of the paper. This also increased to 6 papers in the revised version.”

This, in the same journal by Krolczyk and Li (and Krolczyk’s faculty colleague Andrzej Cichon), is another citation vehicle to fellow papermillers:

Mingyang Huang , Wei He , Atilla Incecik , Andrzej Cichon , Grzegorz Królczyk, Zhixiong Li Renewable energy storage and sustainable design of hybrid energy powered ships: A case study Journal of Energy Storage (2021) doi: 10.1016/j.est.2021.103266 

This paper hasn’t been retracted, because it was published in another papermilling Special Issue, edited by the Iranian fraudsters Mohammad Reza Safaei and Marjan Goodarzi, both are associates of the uber-fraudster and sock-puppeteer Arash Karimipour. As Magazinov noticed, many of the references are indeed dedicated to Goodarzi.

But the paper was cited by a papermilled study, totally without a scientific context (e.g., “The energy requirements of the future for water heating can be attainable by developing the existing water heaters’ performances [1–5]“). In a block of citations which also included works by the Iranian papermiller Mohsen Sheikholeslami (total of 5 in that paper) and works by the Chinese mega-fraudster Yu-Ming Chu (total of 25 citations!). Also cited in that block was this paper by Krolczyk, part of the same Goodarzi/Safaei Special Issue:

Mingyang Huang, Wei He, Atilla Incecik, Munish Kumar Gupta, Grzegorz Królczyk, Zhixiong Li, Phase change material heat storage performance in the solar thermal storage structure employing experimental evaluation, J. Energy Storage (2022),https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2021.103638

None of those cited studies had any connection to water heater performance. We are quite sure that YM Chu pays to get cited. And what about Krolczyk or ZX Li, do they pay also? And with whose money?

Here are Zhixiong Li’s other recent retractions, without Krolczyk, but in the same special issue of Journal of Energy Storage edited by Masoud Afrand:

• Xinrui Qi , Maawiya Ould Sidi, Iskander Tlili, Talib K. Ibrahim, Mohamed Abdelghany Elkotb, M.A. El-Shorbagy, Zhixiong Li Optimization and sensitivity analysis of extended surfaces during melting and freezing of phase changing materials in cylindrical Lithium-ion battery cooling Journal of Energy Storage (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.est.2022.104545 
• Wei Wu , Ghassan Fadhil Smaisim , S. Mohammad Sajadi , Moram A. Fagiry , Zhixiong Li , Mohamed A. Shamseldin , Hikmet Ş. Aybar Impact of phase change material-based heatsinks on lithium-ion battery thermal management: A comprehensive review Journal of Energy Storage (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.est.2022.104874 
• Wei Wu , Ghassan Fadhil Smaisim , S. Mohammad Sajadi , Moram A. Fagiry , Zhixiong Li , Mohamed A. Shamseldin , Hikmet Ş. Aybar Impact of phase change material-based heatsinks on lithium-ion battery thermal management: A comprehensive review Journal of Energy Storage (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.est.2022.104874 

The retraction with papermill fraudster Iskander Tlili mentioned that “the email addresses used by the authors during the submission process were associated with multiple researcher accounts“. It is possible that Tlili is actually the papermill owner, not just a customer (read about him in September 2023 Shorts). The other two retractions for ZX Li are due to “suspicious changes in authorship between the original submission and the revised version of this paper“. And always:

“Furthermore, the acceptance of this article was based upon the positive advice of reviewer reports from reviewers who were closely linked to the Guest Editor, Masoud Afrand.”

You think I digress talking about ZX Li, but actually I don’t, as you will soon see. Krolczyk published oodles of papers with Li, his 3 most recent publications are all jointly authored. Anyway, here is Li with Krolczyk again, in another papermill-infested Elsevier journal:

Hebin Liao , Tianqin Lin , Paolo Gardoni , Wei Zhang , Xiaogang Li , Grzegorz Królczyk , Lei Deng , Z.X. Li, Molecular dynamics analysis of a flavoring drum combining numerical simulation and experimental evaluation, Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements (2023), doi: 10.1016/j.enganabound.2022.11.009

Indeed, the extra added irrelevant citations lead to the work of yet another Iranian papermill fraudster, Davood Toghraie, read about him here:

You can read Maarten van Kampen‘s analysis of this very paper, the entire journal Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements and of course about the Karimipour mafia here and below, also the papermiller Tlili is mentioned:

I wonder if all this business with Iranian papermills, which are likely operating with Iran government’s support, is not conflicting with the genocidal terror which Iran helps russia lead against Europe, right across the Polish border. If for no other reason, a customer of Iranian papermills can be easily blackmailed by foreign agents. Maybe Krolczyk isn’t the right man for the governmental job for national security interests alone?

Krolczyk was even seen papermilling with another great fraudster: Changhe Li! Li is infamous for buying massive stacks of citations to his papermilled papers. The last author on the following study Sayed M Eldin is an Egyptian papermiller who was caught publishing also with the King of Papermillers Rafael Luque, and with tortured phrases and mass-citations to himself and other papermill fraudsters. Next to CH Li, Eldin, Krolczyk and other toxic papermillers is another odd Pole: Szymon Wojciechowski of Poznan University of Technology.

Pankaj Sharma , Somnath Chattopadhyaya , Nirmal Kumar Singh , Ashok Kumar , Shubham Sharma , Changhe Li , Vineet Kumar , Szymon Wojciechowski , Grzegorz Krolczyk , Sayed M. Eldin Recent developments in the design, development, and analysis of the influence of external magnetic-field on gas-metal arc welding of non-ferrous alloys: review on optimization of arc-structure to enhance the morphology, and mechanical properties of welded joints for automotive applications Heliyon (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e11812 

Because Krolczyk is the Vice-Rector for Research he must have already investigating himself, and found himself not only innocent, but also a genius and sexy as hell. His university fully agrees, they never reacted to any emails. And not just them – as you see, Polish academic elites love Krolczyk, they just elected him as their little King!

Krolczyk’s own private website shows a carefully curated publication list (which unfortunately stops in 2021) – it lists many papers by Krolczyk with ZX Li and other papermilling crooks like Seeram Ramakrishna:

• Singh S., Prakash C., Ramakrishna S., Krolczyk G. Advances in Materials Processing, Book Series: Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer Nature Singapore (2020) doi: 10.1007/978-981-15-4748-5
• Prakash C., Singh S., Królczyk G., Ramakrishna S., Le C.H. Microwave sintering of porous Ti-Nb-HA composite with high strength and enhanced bioactivity for implant applications, Journal of Alloys and Compounds (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2020.153774
• Sandhu K., Singh G., Singh S., Kumar R., Prakash C., Ramakrishna S., Królczyk G., Pruncu C.I. Surface Characteristics of Machined Polystyrene with 3D Printed Thermoplastic Tool, Materials, (2020). DOI: 10.3390/ma13122729

This Singapore professor is a notorious (see PubPeer record), which ironically fits his position as “Chair of the Circular Economy Taskforce”. Ramakrishna and his ilk use research funds to buy fake science from papermills, then use those papermilled fabrications to obtain more public money to buy another set of papermilled fraud, all while controlling this circular economy from the inside as editors and reviewers. And Krolczyk is part of that, too.

Krolczyk published oodles of papers with Munish Kumar Gupta, another associate of Changhe Li and also co-author of one of the retracted papers above.

Here are Gupta, Krolczyk and Li, you might recall that the journal:

Mengmeng Wang , Atilla Incecik , Chunsheng Yang , Munish Kumar Gupta , Grzegorz Królczyk , Darius Andriukaitis , Z. Li A critical review on molecular dynamics applied to structure fracture and failure analysis Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements (2023) doi: 10.1016/j.enganabound.2023.02.028 

Its references make little sense. In April 2024, the paper received an Expression of Concern for “potentially compromised or manipulated peer-review” and “potential citation manipulation within the article”. Another coauthor is a Lithuanian professor Darius Andriukaitis who was also seen papermilling with the fraudster Mustafa Inc, described in this article by Maarten van Kampen.

Gupta also recently retracted two papers:

• Munish Kumar Gupta , P.K. Sood , Vishal S. Sharma Optimization of machining parameters and cutting fluids during nano-fluid based minimum quantity lubrication turning of titanium alloy by using evolutionary techniques Journal of Cleaner Production (2016) doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.06.184 
• Swati Gupta, Yashwant Pathak, Manish K. Gupta & Suresh P. Vyas Nanoscale drug delivery strategies for therapy of ovarian cancer: conventional vs targeted, Artificial Cells, Nanomedicine, and Biotechnology, (2019) DOI: 10.1080/21691401.2019.1677680

The first one was retracted by Elsevier because “similar images have been used in various articles in multiple journals claiming varying conditions“. the second was pulled by Taylor & Francis with this explanation:

“Due to high levels of overlap with published content, the Editor had rejected the article for publication in the Journal, but unfortunately due to a technical error, the article was published.”

Truth is, the retraction happened because Gupta’s colleague Suresh P Vyas is a not just a massive fraudster, but also a failed fraudster, with 5 retractions and a huge PubPeer record. Smut Clyde originally exposed him:

Now I will tell you why this papermilling detritus like ZX Li and MK Gupta matter so much to the Krolczyk story. They are not just his regular “coauthors”.

Krolczyk did not reply to my emails, but he explained to another person that he has no information about these retracted papers and that he also doesn’t know his coauthors on them. Which is of course a shameless lie.

Not only does Krolczyk proudly lists all his other papers with ZX Li and MK Gupta on his CV, he even recruited them to his university. Gupta was brought in in 2020, with the rector Marcin Lorenc celebrating this “foreign scientist with such achievements” as “primarily a value for our students“, ZX Li was apparently smuggled in through the backdoor at the same time.

Two years later, in November 2023, Krolczyk asked these two “people with such high scientific achievements” to remain at his university (permanently, maybe?):

Indeed, ZX Li declares to be affiliated with the Opole University of Technology, while Gupta is even officially listed as professor there. In December 2023, the university celebrated Krolczyk and Gupta as “Best Rising Stars of Science in the World 2023”. If you still had doubts where this Polish university stands on papermilling:

Rest assured that the 6th most cited scientist Jolanta Krolczyk is the Vice-Rector’s wife. In fact, she is so successful because she publishes with her husband and his friends ZX Li and MK Gupta. For example, where a PubPeer user commented “The presentation of the experimental results and numerical calculations contained in the work raises serious doubts regarding the reliability of the presented research“:

Mateusz Franka , Nikodem Wróbel , Michał Rejek , Grzegorz M. Królczyk , Munish Kumar Gupta , Jolanta B. Królczyk Analysis of the influence of forming tool geometry on clinching joint for cylindrical surfaces Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.jestch.2024.101656 

As reminder, the little papermiller Krolczyk is now the King of all Polish science, appointed to advise the government. He decides who gets funded and who doesn’t.

By the way, if you are interested in Polish papermilling professors, you must meet Jarosław Proćków, Head of the Department of Plant Biology at Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences:

Heck, why is Prockow not on Krolczyk’s committee?

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