Some one sent this article to me a few hours ago. And it gets 15 comments on PubPeer until this moment. EiC of the journal got involved in such a matter. My question is: What Springer Nature will react?

Several data/spectra issues are found on this article: (1) Repeated noise patterns are observed in Figure 5 (2) Repeated data patterns are observed on the Table 3 ad 4

Repeated noise patterns (marked with purple, red and yellow boxes) are observed in Figure 4 of this article. The repeated patterns suggest the spectra were manipulated.

Abnormal data patterns are observed on the standard deviation values on the Table 3 of this article. Several numbers repeat too many times than expect, such as "0.89" repeats 30 times, "0.44" repeats 23 times, "1.09" repeats 13 times. Such abnormal pattern suggests that the data may be manipulated.

The "0%" line and the "0.5%" line (marked with red arrows) seem to be identical to each other.

Wuhan University published two duplicated articles, details: www.5gh.org.cn/WuGH/2025/00...

I have a question: a same author group published a full manuscript on two proceeding of conferences, can this be considered as duplicate submission?

I am wondering if these ssymmetrical error bars are normal? Details about these error bars remain unclear, including what these error bars represent (the standard deviation or standard error), and how many replications were conducted.

Two articles with a same first author have abnormal error bars.

Solar Energy and Power Electronic Co., Ltd., a suspected fake company, has published 44 articles with fishy authorship on Elsevier and Springer Nature journals. Details: www.5gh.org.cn/WuGH/2025/00... We are asking the publishers to step in for further investigations.

How much are tha APCs for multidisciplinary journals

Hi, everyone, I want to ask for some input. I came across a publisher in the United States, ConnectSix Scholar Publishing INC (journal.cscholar.com), specifically targets authors from China. I suspect it may be a #PredatoryPublisher. But I am not familiar to this matter.

Mismatch between absorption spectra and Tauc plots is observed in many articles. Here is an example we reproduced the Tauc plot using the data extracted from the blue line in upper-left panel.

Recently, we uncovered data manipulation on multiple articles published by ZHANG Yifeng (张翼峰) with Technical University of Denmark. Details: www.5gh.org.cn/WuGH/2025/00... It seems that they are trying very hard to stop our report in Chinese social media

This year, I've received multiple reports from different individuals indicating that certain Chinese academic journals have been hijacked. We are now conducting a deeper investigation into the patterns of these #HijackedJournal. (1/2)

Asymmetrical error bars are observed in Figure 1, and 2 of this article. Some error bars in those figures show upward displacement relative to the data points, while some show lower displacement. It remains unclear what reason caused these displacement.

Asymmetrical error bars are observed on multiple figures of this article. Some of the error bars have imbalance horizontal bars, with one side longer and the other side shorter. It seems these unusual asymmetrical error bars were resulted in data manipulation

Asymmetrical error bars are observed on Figure 2a of this article, with thicker upper bars and thinner lower bars. It remains unknown if these unusual asymmetrical error bars were caused by improper plotting setting, or they were resulted in data manipulation.

Broken spectrum is observed on Figure 1e of this article, as marked with purple arrows.

Hidden data point is observed in Figure 10b of this article. After enlarging the figure, one can find a hidden data point (in gray colour) on the yellow line around "24 h", as marked with red arrow. It remains unknown what this data point stands for.

Some hidden data points are observed in Figure 3b, 4b, 5b, 6b, 8a, and 8b of this article. One can find the hidden data points by enlarging the figure. Some examples are marked with red arrows. It remains unknown what the hidden data stands for.

In the Figure 2d of this article, error bar is not shown for the bar of CR-CM7 with HA, as marked with purple cycle.

Broken spectrum is observed on Figure 1e of this article, as marked with purple arrows.

Asymmetrical error bars are observed on this article. Sometimes, the upper bar is thicker, while sometimes the lower bar is thicker. It remains unknown if they were caused by the plotting software or the image process during publication, or they are resulted in data manipulation

Lego-like bar charts, and other issues on the article. Please find the details: www.5gh.org.cn/WuGH/2025/00...

Recently, we uncover several aricles by Nawal Abdalla Adam having high proportion (over 25%) of the references to Muhammad Umair, with Ghazi University, Pakistan. Details: www.5gh.org.cn/WuGH/2025/00...

One of the authors, D.T. Semiruomi, seems to be adopting an altered name to evade detection. Details: www.5gh.org.cn/WuGH/2025/00...

1436 off-scope articles were published on "International Journal for Housing Science and Its Applications". Evidences suggest that the journal is being targeted by Chinese paper mill(s), details: www.5gh.org.cn/WuGH/2025/00...

Does this logo belong to Thermo Scientific?

N=100000 normally-distributed random integers with (M=175 SD=8, height) and (M=70 SD=6, weight). Compute BMI=((weight*10000)/height) and look at the distribution of the 4th digit of the decimal part (i.e., the sixth significant digit). Should be uniform, right? /

Is there any retraction case due to copycat but not plagiarism?

Four cases of misidentifying the SEM equipments

Two cases of abnormal spectra

Two Taylor & Francis journals, "Frroelectrics" and "Integrated Ferroelectrics", published over 300 off-scope articles during 2021 and 2023. 171 on Frroelectrics, and 137 on Integrated Ferroelectrics. Details: www.5gh.org.cn/WuGH/2025/00...

How protracted are publishers' editorial resolutions for problematic articles? Here are examples from Andrew Grey et. al.: www.jclinepi.com/article/S089...

Although China is hardly considered as low- or middle-income country right now, however, given the marginalized status of academic integrity research in China, it is recommended to provide greater travel support to researchers from China who are conducting meaningful studies.

Abstract submission and travel grant application for the 9th World Conference on Research Integrity are open. Please consider to submit an abstract and to reshare this message. lnkd.in/eJ9hmaRs

Unusual Retract-Republish: authors retracted the article because mistakes in SEM images, and republished it on the same journal. This was unnecessary, but does not imply authors engaged in misconduct. Indeed, the journal bears the responsibility. Details: www.5gh.org.cn/WuGH/2025/000011.R3.html

An advertisement posted on RedNote (Xiaohongshu), a Chinese social media, is offering the first-author position of an article accepted by a T&F. Details: www.5gh.org.cn/WuGH/2025/00...

Crazy ‪@elsevierconnect.bsky.social‬ republished an article, which was retracted due to potential authorship manipulation, on the SAME journal, with SAME title, SAME content, but 4 additional authors. Details: www.5gh.org.cn/WuGH/2025/00...

#InterestingRetraction Authors retracted their article (10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2024.136621) because not allowed to add new authors post publication. Since the article was retracted by the aurhors instead of the journal, it is unknown if it is allowed to resubmit their article.

A Chinese social media outlet recently claimed that a foreign website exclusively publishes content about authors from China, India, and the Middle East while focusing solely on low-impact-factor journals. (1/3)

This case is something strang: Authors requested to change the title post publication, and the journal denied that request, and finally, the authors retracted their article. Do I miss something?😂

An article publisehd on ‪@plosone.org‬, recently on line, has several integrity issues, including (1) very fishy authorship (potentional authorship-for-sale), (2) abnormal data patterns. More details: www.5gh.org.cn/WuGH/2025/00...

ZHU Bin (朱斌), who earned the title of "Top 2% Scientist" in 2022, and is working for Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, and Southeast University, China, is found to receive abnormal "Citation-from-Pal" and "Citation-from-Themself". Details: www.5gh.org.cn/WuGH/2025/00...

In the first sentence of this article's Introduction section, 15 references were cited, 14 (93%) of them were coauthored by ZHU Bin. Although 9 of them were also coauthored by Rizwan Raza, one of the authors in this article [1], the other 5 were not coauthored by Raza.

The article cites a total number of 29 references, 15 (52%) of them were co-authored by ZHU Bin. Notably, Rizwan Raza, one of the authors of article, has maintained a long-standing collaborative relationship with ZHU.

Abnormal backwards are observed in the Figure 2 of this article, as marked with the red line and red arrows. Details about the article: www.5gh.org.cn/WuGH/2025/00...

Reused spectra are observed an article published on "Applied Physics A", a ‪@springernature.com titel. Six lines of XRD patterns in Figure 1 of this article are identical to each other.

An article on "Applied Physics A", a ‪@springernature.com‬ title, have 16 of the 50 (32%) references coauthored by Abhinav Singhal in India. Most of those citations were concentrated in a simple citing statement "Some of the noteworthy contributions are [12–18]".