Acid studies burned by duplication test in corrosion papers

Petroleum engineers in Iran have lost a pair of papers in the Journal of Dispersion Science and Technology for duplication and misuse of data.

The authors, whose various and varying affiliations include the National Iranian Oil Company, the Iranian Offshore Oil Company and Karaj Azad University, appear to have plagiarized not once, but twice: Two 2014 papers are both “substantially similar” to a 2013 paper, all published in the same journal. Which says plenty about both parties, we think.

What’s more, both retracted papers lifted data from a 2013 article in another journal, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, “without proper citation.”   

All of the Journal of Dispersion Science and Technology articles list the same first author: O. Ghasemi.  The Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research paper shares several authors with the 2013 Journal of Dispersion Science and Technology paper copied by the 2014 papers in the same journal. We’ve contacted Ghasemi, and will update if he responds.

Here’s one notice, for a 2014 article titled “Adsorption and Inhibition Effect of Benzaldehyde Schiff Bases on Mild Steel Corrosion in 1 M HCl Medium”:

We, the Editor and Publishers of Journal of Dispersion Science and Technology, are retracting the following article:

O. Ghasemi, M.R. Ghadimi, and V. Ghasemi, “Adsorption and Inhibition Effect of Benzaldehyde Schiff Bases on Mild Steel Corrosion in 1 M HCl Medium,” Journal of Dispersion Science and Technology 35.8 (2014): 1143–1154 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01932691.2013.834263

We are now cognizant of a substantially similar version of this article which was previously submitted to, and published in, Journal of Dispersion Science and Technology: O. Ghasemi, I. Danaee, G.R. Rashed, M. Rashvand Avei, and M.H. Maddahy, “Adsorption and Inhibition Effect of Synthesized N,N′-bis(3-Hydroxybenzaldehyde)-1,3-Propandiimine on the Corrosion of Mild Steel in 1 M HCl,” Journal of Dispersion Science and Technology 34.7 (2013): 985–995 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01932691.2012.712006

We have also ascertained that experimental data from the following prior-published work was used in this paper without proper citation:

M. Gholami, I. Danaee, M.H. Maddahy, and M. Rashvand Avei, “Correlated ab Initio and Electroanalytical Study on Inhibition Behavior of 2-Mercaptobenzothiazole and its Thiole-Thione Tautomerism Effect for the Corrosion of Steel (API 5 L X52) in Sulphuric Acid Solution,” Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 52.42 (2013) http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ie402108g

These actions constitute a breach of warranties made by the authors with respect to originality. We note that we received, peer-reviewed, accepted, and published the article in good faith based on these warranties, and censure this action.

The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as RETRACTED.

And the second, for “Inhibition Effect of Hydroxybenzaldehyde Schiff Bases on the Corrosion of Mild Steel in Hydrochloric Acid Solution,” which has been cited 1 time, according to Google Scholar:

We, the Editor and Publishers of Journal of Dispersion Science and Technology, are retracting the following article:

O. Ghasemi, H. Ghanbariadivi, and V. Ghasemi, “Inhibition Effect of Hydroxybenzaldehyde Schiff Bases on the Corrosion of Mild Steel in Hydrochloric Acid Solution,” Journal of Dispersion Science and Technology 35.5 (2014): 706–716 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01932691.2013.807740

We are now cognizant of a substantially similar version of this article which was previously submitted to, and published in, Journal of Dispersion Science and Technology: O. Ghasemi, I. Danaee, G.R. Rashed, M. Rashvand Avei, and M.H. Maddahy, “Adsorption and Inhibition Effect of Synthesized N,N′-bis(3-Hydroxybenzaldehyde)-1,3-Propandiimine on the Corrosion of Mild Steel in 1 M HCl,” Journal of Dispersion Science and Technology 34.7 (2013): 985–995 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01932691.2012.712006

We have also ascertained that experimental data from the following prior-published work was used in this paper without proper citation:

M. Gholami, I. Danaee, M.H. Maddahy, and M. Rashvand Avei, “Correlated ab Initio and Electroanalytical Study on Inhibition Behavior of 2-Mercaptobenzothiazole and its Thiole-Thione Tautomerism Effect for the Corrosion of Steel (API 5 L X52) in Sulphuric Acid Solution,” Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 52.42 (2013) http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ie402108g

These actions constitute a breach of warranties made by the authors with respect to originality. We note that we received, peer-reviewed, accepted, and published the article in good faith based on these warranties, and censure this action.

The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as RETRACTED.