Issues of global relevance

Mu Yang vandalised yet another Elsevier journal. This time, it’s Environmental Research, which is completely conquered by Asian papermill fraud.

The journal has an impressive impact factor of 7.7 and an editorial board consisting of western professors. It claims to publish “high quality and novel information about issues of global relevance” which is apparently a code for badly hand-drawn fraudulent nonsense submitted by obnoxious papermillers.

There are several Editors-in-Chief:

1. Payam Dadvand, of Barcelona Institute for Global Health in Spain
2. Robert Letcher, of Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada
3. Grzegorz Lisak, of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore
4. Johan Øvrevik, of Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo, Norway
5. Pierre Sicard, of University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, France
6. Aijie Wang, of Harbin Institute of Technology in China

It is that last EiC who is a massive red flag. I wrote about her activities in May 2024 Shorts, and what she does is to edit her own papers at this same journal by using varying transliterations of her name. Here, handling editor Aijie Wang:

Again, Aijie Wang handling a paper by Ai-Jie Wang, both have matching academic affiliations:

For those still unsure if it is the same person: on her own institutional website, Aijie Wang uses both transcriptions of her name. Wang has an h-index of 91, and she publishes faster than others read. Draw your own conclusions where she gets her papers and citations, I suggest it starts with p and ends with apermill.

There is also a peer review ring in operation. This paper in Environmental Research was also editorially handled by Aijie Wang, its last author Yifeng Zhang is associate professor at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU):

Huajun Feng , Anan Jin , Xianbin Yin , Zhicheng Hong , Yangcheng Ding , Nannan Zhao , Yufan Chen, Yifeng Zhang Enhancing biocathode denitrification performance with nano-Fe3O4 under polarity period reversal Environmental Research (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.117641 

It was submitted on 21 September 2023. On 22 September 2023, a certain Yi-Feng Zhang. of exactly same Danish affiliation, submitted another paper to a different Elsevier journal where the DTU professor Yifeng Zhang is member of the editorial board. That paper was co-authored by Aijie, pardon, Ai-Jie Wang:

You probably see that cheating by both authors and editors is not a bug but the main design feature of this Elsevier journal. It is different from an earlier case investigated by Mu, where the chief editor was simply incompetent:

Here is the dossier of around 80 fake papers for Environmental Research, with PubPeer links, created by Mu Yang:

Now, join Mu and yours truly in pointing fingers and laughing at this fake parody of a scientific journal, the so-called Environmental Research. Let’s start with something simple and funny. Hand-drawn spectra!

Govindan Rajivgandhi , R.T.V. Vimala , Muthuchamy Maruthupandy , Naiyf S. Alharbi , Shine Kadaikunnan , Jamal M. Khaled , Natesan Manoharan , Wen-Jun Li Enlightening the characteristics of bioflocculant of endophytic actinomycetes from marine algae and its biosorption of heavy metal removal Environmental Research (2021) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.111708 

Another one drawn by an aspiring graphic artist:

Prathipkumar Subramaniyan , Vijayakumar Subramaniyan, Sangeetha Renganathan , Vidhya Elavarasan , Mysoon M. Al-Ansari , Majdoleen Aldawsari , Praseetha Prabhakaran Kala , Woong Kim Enhanced photocatalytic efficiencies in a bifunctional ZnO/PVA nanocomposites derived from Capparis zeylanica L Environmental Research (2023) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.116482 

This one is also hand-drawn, a proposal to turn chickens into biodiesel:

This is also nice, some artwork from Iran:

Ali Jafari , Marzieh Rashidipour , Bahram Kamarehi , Samira Alipour , Mansour Ghaderpoori Toxicity of green synthesized TiO2 nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) on zebra fish Environmental Research (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.113542 

Aptly titled “FABRICATION”:

Omid Moradi , Shahabeddin Panahandeh Fabrication of different adsorbents based on zirconium oxide, graphene oxide, and dextrin for removal of green malachite dye from aqueous solutions Environmental Research (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.114042

It is not clear what this Ayurvedic herbal decoction has to do with the journal’s scope, except of course being hand-drawn fraud:

Tan Phat Chau , Mohammad Shahzad Samdani , Laya Liz Kuriakose , Raveendran Sindhu Assessment of multi-biomedical efficiency of Andrographis paniculata shoot extracts through in-vitro analysis and major compound identification Environmental Research (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.117779   

The next Ayurverdic paper qualifies also, fabricated by Mexico-based Ashutosh Sharma and Vietnam-based Rajasree Shanmuganathan, two India natives who also contributed to this journal Shanmuganathan et al 2023 (on “hydrocracking of waste chicken oil”) with similarly hand-drawn spectra.

Rajasree Shanmuganathan, Sandhanasamy Devanesan , Goldie Oza , Ashutosh Sharma Assessment of antimicrobial, antidiabetic, and anti-inflammatory properties of acetone extract of Aerva lanata (L.) by in-vitro approach and bioactive compounds characterization Environmental Research (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.118348 

Maybe Environmental Research should rename itself to Journal of Hand-Drawn Ayurveda?

Anh-Tuan Le , Hai-Anh Ha , Mysoon M Al-Ansari , Kasber Elankathirselvan , Latifah A Al-Humaid Aristolochia bracteolata flower extract based phytosynthesis and characterization of AgNPs: Antimicrobial, antidiabetic, and antioxidant activities potential assessment Environmental Research (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.118729 

Iron nanoparticles deployed to grow medicinal crops, appreciate the repetitive fragments of the spectra:

Abbas Jafari , Mehrnaz Hatami Foliar-applied nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) and iron oxide (Fe3O4) induce differential responses in growth, physiology, antioxidative defense and biochemical indices in Leonurus cardiaca L Environmental Research (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.114254 

There are also many celebrity papermill fraudsters! Here we meet Fatih Sen from Turkey and Mika Sillanpää (sacked in Finland for sexual harassment and theft), again with hand-drawn trash:

Hassan Karimi-Maleh, Sara Ranjbari , Bahareh Tanhaei, Ali Ayati , Yasin Orooji, Marzieh Alizadeh , Fatemeh Karimi, Sadegh Salmanpour , Jalal Rouhi , Mika Sillanpää , Fatih Sen Novel 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide impregnated chitosan hydrogel beads nanostructure as an efficient nanobio-adsorbent for cationic dye removal: Kinetic study Environmental Research (2021) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.110809 

In that paper, there are other professional papermillers on board: Yasin Orooji and Sen’s associate Fatemeh Karimi.

And here is the papermill fraudster Pau Loke Show, with a fishy fish study. Luckily, no experiments were ever done and the fish were invented, as one PubPeer user noticed (“The Credit author statement does not list a single author that actually did the work. 1 person did the conceptualization (which is not the actual practical work), but the rest did only writing, visualization and supervision“):

Bilal Hussain , Muhammad Sajad , Hassan Usman , Khalid A. Al-Ghanim , Mian Nadeem Riaz , Aydin Berenjian , Shahid Mahboob , Pau Loke Show Assessment of hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity in Cirrhinus mrigala induced by trypan blue – An azo dye Environmental Research (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.114120 

As it happens, the Danish professor Christian Sonne, who just happens to be a key member of Pau Loke Show‘s papermill vortex, is a senior member of the journal’s editorial board. In fact, Sonne not only has many joint papers with his section chief and the journal’s Editor-in-Chief Robert Letcher, the two boys run a cosy peer review ring. For example, Sonne’s paper Gu et al Environmental Research 2023 (with another member of the papermill vortex, Su Shiung Lam) was editorially handled by Letcher.

Now a paper by Awais Bokhari and other known members of the Sonne/Show gang, knowing how it operates we can safely assume that also here Sonne was the handling editor:

Naveed Ullah , Fazal Haq , Arshad Farid , Mehwish Kiran, Zeid A. Al Othman , Ahmed Muteb Aljuwayid , Mohamed A. Habila , Awais Bokhari, Saravanan Rajendran , Kuan Shiong Khoo Coupling of carboxymethyl starch with 2-carboxyethyl acrylate: A new sorbent for the wastewater remediation of methylene blue Environmental Research (2023) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.115091 

Here, the coauthor Yong Sik Ok is also a member of the Sonne/Show papermill vortex. Maybe this time its German member and biochar expert Jörg Rinklebe was the invited editor? Mu Yang caught the fraud in repetitive numbers:

Also the King of Papermillers Rafael Luque (sacked in Spain) and his postdoc Thomas Len (son of Luque’s best friend Christophe Len, see April 2024 Shorts) published in Environmental Research. That paper was flagged by Alexander Magazinov, see Malik et al 2023.

Here is Florian Stadler, a German in China, read about him in the article above:

Ali Shan , Ayesha Idrees , Waqas Qamar Zaman , Ali Mohsin , Zain Abbas , Florian J Stadler, Shuguang Lyu Synthesis of CaCO supported nano zero-valent iron-nickel nanocomposite (nZVI-Ni@CaCO) and its application for trichloroethylene removal in persulfate activated system Environmental Research (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.118050 

Next we have the Iranian papermill fraudster Yasser Vasseghian (read November 2024 Shorts) visiting, the paper was previously flagged by another PubPeer user:

Van-Dat Doan , Bao-An Huynh , Hoang Ai Le Pham , Yasser Vasseghian , Van Thuan Le Cu2O/Fe3O4/MIL-101(Fe) nanocomposite as a highly efficient and recyclable visible-light-driven catalyst for degradation of ciprofloxacin Environmental Research (2021) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.111593 

Again Vasserghian, again with his Vietnamese customers, but also with russian fraudsters:

R.M. Akhmadullin , A.T. Gubaidullin , Kh. E. Kharlampidi , S.R. Kurbankulov , T.F. Nigmatullin , M.U. Dao, R.F. Khamidullin , A.G. Akhmadullina , Y. Vasseghian , H.Y. Hoang Bivalent copper oligopyrocatecholate as a novel heterogeneous catalyst for the oxidative degradation of mercaptan in caustic solution: Synthesis, characterization, and kinetic study Environmental Research (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.112171

Ok, the above was maybe difficult to spot. But how did this by Yasseghian and his Vietnamese customers pass peer review? Three identical spectra:

Another international team of fraudsters, with four spectra in a figure, all identical except for colour. Flagged by another PubPeer user:

S. Panimalar , S. Logambal , R. Thambidurai , C. Inmozhi , R. Uthrakumar , Azhaguchamy Muthukumaran , Rabab Ahmed Rasheed , Mansour K. Gatasheh , A. Raja , J. Kennedy , K. Kaviyarasu Effect of Ag doped MnO2 nanostructures suitable for wastewater treatment and other environmental pollutant applications Environmental Research (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.112560 

For the experts, environmental pollution can be only cleaned up with nanoparticles:

Vempuluru Navakoteswara Rao , Vijayarengan Preethi , Urupalli Bhargav , Parnapalle Ravi , Ashish Kumar , Marappan Sathish , Venkata Krishnan , Vemula Venkatramu , Murikinati Mamatha Kumari , Kakarla Raghava Reddy , Nagaraj P. Shetti , Tejraj M. Aminabhavi , Muthukonda Venkatakrishnan Shankarm Gram-scale synthesis of ZnS/NiO core-shell hierarchical nanostructures and their enhanced H2 production in crude glycerol and sulphide wastewater Environmental Research (2021) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.111323 

Others draw such figures by hand, because everything gets accepted at that journal, not just unread but even unlooked briefly in passing at:

Davoud Khademi , Mahboobeh Zargazi , Mohammad Chahkandi , Mehdi Baghayeri A novel γ‒BMO@BMWO Z‒Scheme heterojunction for promotion photocatalytic performance: Nanofibers thin film by Co‒axial‒electrospun Environmental Research (2023) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.115154

More light magic, Mu Yang was helped by some other sleuths:

Irum Batool , Karma Albalawi , Afaq Ullah Khan , Kamran Tahir , Zia Ul Haq Khan , Magdi E.A. Zaki , Ebraheem Abdu Musad Saleh , Eman A. Alabbad , Talal M. Althagafi , Fahad Abdulaziz The construction of novel CuO/SnO2@g-C3N4 photocatalyst for efficient degradation of ciprofloxacin, methylene blue and photoinhibition of bacteria through efficient production of reactive oxygen species Environmental Research (2023) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.116086 

You cannot do biomedical fraud without curcumin, and to make it fit the journal’s scope, you declare your curcumin nanoparticles to be “sustainable”:

Qudsia Kanwal , Samiah Shahid , Abeel Ahmad , Arif Nazir, Muhammad Yasir , Aneela Anwar , Samar Z. Alshawwa , Munawar Iqbal Sustainable, economical and rapid treatment of multiple lung diseases using therapeutic potential of curcumin nanoparticles Environmental Research (2023) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.116477  

Nobody ever reads papers in this journal before and after they are published. It seems, sleuths like Mu Yang are the only audience, before her nobody noticed the copy-pasted figure panels:

Janani Karuppaiyan, A Mullaimalar, R Jeyalakshmi Adsorption of dyestuff by nano copper oxide coated alkali metakaoline geopolymer in monolith and powder forms: Kinetics, isotherms and microstructural analysis Environmental Research (2023) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.115002 

Here are two intimately coupled contributions from esteemed academics Kuppusamy Sathishkumar and Xinghui Liu:

Another couple of papers, courtesy of some Sanjeevamuthu Suganthi:

• Sanjeevamuthu Suganthi , Shanmugam Vignesh , Jeyaperumal Kalyana Sundar , Sondos Abdullah Alqarni , Saravanan Pandiaraj , Tae Hwan Oh Cobalt oxide coupled with graphitic carbon nitride composite heterojunction for efficient Z-scheme photocatalytic environmental pollutants degradation performance Environmental Research (2023) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.116574
• Sanjeevamuthu Suganthi , Shanmugam Vignesh , Vairamuthu Raj , Salim Manoharadas , Saravanan Pandiaraj , Haekyoung Kim Synergistic influence of vanadium pentoxide-coupled graphitic carbon nitride composite for photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutant: Stability and involved Z-scheme mechanism Environmental Research (2023) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.116288 

A Vietnamese-Saudi-Korean-Chilean collaboration led by Rajasree Shanmuganathan (whom you met above, and who has more on PubPeer):

Rajasree Shanmuganathan, N.D. Nguyen , Mysoon M. Al-Ansari , Ezhaveni Sathiyamoorthi , Jintae Lee , S.D. Priya Identification of suitable catalyst among HZSM-5, HY and γ-Al2O3 to obtain upgraded pyrolysis oil with augmented liquid oil yield Environmental Research (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.119587 

Also visit the PubPeer thread for Sathiyamoorthi et al 2024 by the same team. Now, Shanmuganathan is an associate of a certain Kathirvel Brindhadevi, who is a ridiculous papermiller based in Vietnam and featured in August 2024 Shorts:

Nallasamy Prakashkumar , Arivalagan Pugazhendhi , Kathirvel Brindhadevi , Hakim AL. Garalleh , Mazen Garaleh , Natarajan Suganthy Comparative study of zinc oxide nanoparticles synthesized through biogenic and chemical route with reference to antibacterial, antibiofilm and anticancer activities Environmental Research (2023) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.115136

Brindhadevi has another paper in Env Research, Rachtha et al 2023, which fell prey to the Vickers Curse and was debunked by Reese Richardson and Hubert Wojtasek.

This Brindhadevi is really a piece of work:

Manimegalai Sengani , Shreya Chakraborty , Menaka Priya Balaji , Rajakumar Govindasamy , Tahani Awad Alahmadi , Sami Al Obaid , Indira Karuppusamy , Nguyen Thuy Lan Chi , Kathirvel Brindhadevi, Devi Rajeswari V Anti-diabetic efficacy and selective inhibition of methyl glyoxal, intervention with biogenic Zinc oxide nanoparticle Environmental Research (2023) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.114475 

Also enjoy the hand-drawn spectra in Zhang et al 2022, Algami et al 2023 and Brindhadevi, Subramanian et al 2024, in the same esteemed Elsevier journal Environmental Research. Here another nice and simple hand-made fraud by Brindhadevi and Shanmuganathan:

Kathirvel Brindhadevi, Indira Karuppusamy , Mohammed F. Albeshr , Rajasree Shanmuganathan Catalytic pyrolysis of fish waste oil using ZSM-5 catalyst for the production of renewable biofuel Environmental Research (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.119486 

Look at this pile of four compost papers, the only common author is some Natarajan Arumugam, professor at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia and likely the owner of a papermill selling authorships:

• B Christina , K Thanigaimani, R Sudhakaran , S Mohan, Natarajan Arumugam , Abdulrahman I Almansour , Karthikeyan Perumal Green waste immobilized Ag/Cu feather like Bi-matrix on garment dye decomposes and their bio-efficacy Environmental Research (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.117761 
• M S Manojkumar, B Sivaprakash , Natarajan Arumugam , Abdulrahman I Almansour Banana peel extract for CeO nanoflower synthesis: Enhancing photocatalytic activity for methyl orange dye removal and bactericidal effects Environmental Research (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.118785 
• A. Vasantham , K. Thanigaimani , R. Sudhakaran , S. Mohan , Natarajan Arumugam , Abdulrahman I. Almansour , Karthikeyan Perumal Rationally construction of 2D & 3D material on h-BN @ SnO2/TiO2 micro-sphere enables for photocatalytic debasement of textile cloth dyes in waste water treatment Environmental Research (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.118728 
• B Christina , K Thanigaimani, R Sudhakaran , S Mohan , Natarajan Arumugam , Abdulrahman I Almansour , Sakkarapalayam M Mahalingam Pyto-Architechture of Ag, Au and Ag-Au bi-metallic nanoparticles using waste orange peel extract for enable carcinogenic Congo red dye degradation Environmental Research (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.117625 

But now allow me to show you some much more professional Photoshop forgery:

Meghashyama Prabhakara Bhat, Bidhayak Chakraborty , Shashiraj Kareyellappa Nagaraja, Pooja Vidyasagar Gunagambhire, Raju Suresh Kumar, Sreenivasa Nayaka, Abdulrahman I. Almansour , Karthikeyan Perumal Aspergillus niger CJ6 extract with antimicrobial potential promotes in-vitro cytotoxicity and induced apoptosis against MIA PaCa-2 cell line Environmental Research (2023) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.116008 

More anti-cancer mold, converted into nanoparticles and tested on fake chicken eggs:

Vellingiri Manon Mani , Sethumathavan Kalaivani , Shanmugam Sabarathinam , Manikandan Vasuki , Arockiam Jeyasundar Parimala Gnana Soundari , M.P. Ayyappa Das , Ashraf Elfasakhany , Arivalagan Pugazhendhi Copper oxide nanoparticles synthesized from an endophytic fungus Aspergillus terreus: Bioactivity and anti-cancer evaluations Environmental Research (2021)
doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.111502 

Some fraudsters have no shame, they just ruthlessly steal from other fraudsters! Here, the contributors to Environmental Research stole data from hard-working papermill fraudsters around Awais Ahmad, specifically from Tahir et al 2022 in Hindawi (previously flagged for stolen data (sic!) by Alexander Magazinov):

J Josphin Mini , Safia Khan , M Aravind, Thibi Mol , Aboud Ahmed Awadh Bahajjaj , H Marshan Robert , T Kumaresubitha , Aneela Anwar , Hu Li Investigation of antimicrobial and anti-cancer activity of thermally sensitive SnO nanostructures with green-synthesized cauliflower morphology at ambient weather conditions Environmental Research (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.117878 

In that journal, nobody peer-reviews or reads anything. Here a Pakistani papermill contribution featuring an odd Pole: Grzegorz Boczkaj, a Highly Cited Researcher of the Gdansk University of Technology:

Ammara Nazir , Muhammad Imran, Farah Kanwal , Shoomaila Latif , Ayesha Javaid , Tak H. Kim , Grzegorz Boczkaj , Ashwag Shami , Hafiz Iqbal Degradation of cefadroxil drug by newly designed solar light responsive alcoholic template-based lanthanum ferrite nanoparticles Environmental Research (2023) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.116241 

Obviously, this Polish genius’s secret are Asian papermills, he even fell prey to the Vickers Curse (Ullah et al Molecules 2022). Boczkaj’s other paper with his Gdansk colleague Muhammad Bilal, again in Env Research (Bilal et al 2023), was debunked by Hubert Wojtasek for “a large number of errors, misplaced references, vague sentences and tortured phrases“. Here is Bilal before he came to Poland, the evidence shows that the figures were stolen and edited to portray something else:

Hina Liaquat , Muhammad Imran , Shoomaila Latif , Sajid Iqbal , Nazim Hussain , Muhammad Bilal Citric acid-capped NiWO4/Bi2S3 and rGO-doped NiWO4/Bi2S3 nanoarchitectures for photocatalytic decontamination of emerging pollutants from the aqueous environment Environmental Research (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.113276 

As you saw above, Mu Yang caught some fraudsters on duplicated numbers in their tables. Like here, green nanoparticles to be used against insect pests:

Mathiyazhagan Narayanan , P. Gokila Devi , Devarajan Natarajan , Sabariswaran Kandasamy , Kesavan Devarayan , Mishal Alsehli , Ashraf Elfasakhany , Arivalagan Pugazhendhi Green synthesis and characterization of titanium dioxide nanoparticles using leaf extract of Pouteria campechiana and larvicidal and pupicidal activity on Aedes aegypti Environmental Research (2021) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.111333 

Also Namasivayam et al 2023 decided that nanoparticles (from brick ash!) can be deployed against insect pests, the numbers are duplicated in blocks there also. This one proposes to use fungi from pesticide-polluted soil to clean up pesticides:

Ashraf Abdel-Fattah Mostafa , Mohamed Taha Yassin , Turki M. Dawoud , Fatimah O. Al-Otibi , Shaban RM. Sayed Mycodegradation of diazinon pesticide utilizing fungal strains isolated from polluted soil Environmental Research (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.113421 

Mu Yang informed the journal and Elsevier in July 2024 already, with follow-up emails with more evidence. Nothing much happened since.

Except for one lonely retraction. The paper was flagged by Dictyographa varians in August 2024 for nonsense references and nonsense content, then Elisabeth Bik and Mu Yang posted evidence of fraud:

Armaya’u Usman , Kuan Shiong Khoo , Marinah Mohd Ariffin , Saw Hong Loh , Wan Mohd Afiq Wan Mohd Khalik , Hanis Mohd Yusoff , Zakariyya Uba Zango, Osamah Aldaghri , Khalid Hassan Ibnaouf , M.H. Eisa , Ayed M. Binzowaimil , Jun Wei Lim Adsorption of terbutaline β-agonists from wastewater by mechano-synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles modified copper (II) isonicotinate metal-organic framework Environmental Research (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.119413

The retraction notice from 2 December 2024 however attributed the credit to all the wrong parties:

“Two of the co-authors contacted the Editors alerting them to concerns about plagiarism and reliability of details and figures used in the published manuscript. These included the reuse of the same image for Fig. 3a which appeared in three earlier articles (Molecules, 27 (2022) 5194, https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27165194; Scientific Reports, 12 (2022) 12806, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-16948-z; International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, 118 (2018) Pages 1494–1500, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2018.06.1) by different groups of authors and some fundamental errors connected with the methods used. The corresponding author was contacted for comment about the above-mentioned concerns but was unable to provide a suitable explanation. The Editors have therefore lost confidence in the reliability of the findings presented in this article as a whole.”

The papers which Usman et al stole from were papermilled also. Hassan et al 2022 is coauthored by the Polish cheater Jarosław Proćków, read about him here:

The electron microscope image from Li et al 2022 was initially stolen also, it appears in further papers, as Bik noticed. Hosseini et al 2018 is ridiculously fake, and coauthored by Ali Fakhri, but Elsevier seems not interested in retracting it.

What can you expect with such editors like AJ Wang, Sonne and Letcher. Also the Editor-in-Chief Pierre Sicard seems to run a peer review ring together with Elena Paoletti and others, as evidenced by PubPeer users (for the instances where journals named the handling editors). And the Environmental Research‘s Special Issue editor Avelino Núñez-Delgado is probably even worse. He publishes with the worst of papermillers, see Hadiya et al 2022 with Pau Loke Show, Muhammad Bilal and even Mika Sillanpää.

There are several Special Issues open at the time of writing. One is edited by the papermiller Damia Barcelo, another by Kit Wayne Chew (a member of the Show/Sonne vortex). The business continues.

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