“The whole thing is yucky:” When you’re surprised to find yourself as an author on a paper

When David Cox noticed on Dec. 10, 2020 that two papers in the journal Cluster Computing listed him as an author, he didn’t think much of it at first.

I have a common name, so it is not unheard of to have an article written by another David Cox assigned to my profile. I thought that was what these papers must have been at first, but then I opened the articles and saw my affiliation, email, and picture in them.

Shocked, Cox tweeted that “the whole thing is yucky.” The corresponding author on the two studies now says that he plans to withdraw the papers, and that a co-author made the decision to include Cox’s name and has been fired from his research position over the incident. Yesterday, on January 25, the publisher flagged one of the papers.

Cox, who is the IBM Director of the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, in Cambridge, Mass., learned  about the articles after logging on to DBLP, a bibliography website that tracks articles published by computer scientists. “I check these sites from time to time to make sure everything is correct,” he said.

One of the articles, “A FCM cluster: cloud networking model for intelligent transportation in the city of Macau,” was published in October 2017 and has been cited four times, according to Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science. The other, “Mobile network intrusion detection for IoT system based on transfer learning algorithm,” was published in January 2018 and has been cited 14 times. Both studies list David Cox as a co-author and share the same corresponding author: Daming Li, a researcher affiliated with the City University of Macau. 

Cox says that Springer Nature, which publishes the journal, did not respond to his initial complaints, which he sent by email on December 10. He tweeted his frustrations about the studies that same day:

I just discovered two papers (in a @SpringerNature journal) that have my name on the author list, but which I definitely did not contribute to. The rest of the author list is Chinese people I have never heard of. :/

— David Cox (@neurobongo) December 10, 2020

On December 29, Birgit Ladewig, a social media manager at Springer Nature, emailed Stella Lawrence, a production editor, urging her to look into Cox’s complaints “as soon as possible” because “he is an IBM Director and has almost 10K followers [on Twitter], which we would consider influential”. The email message said:

A David Cox has contacted us on social media with regards to at least two article [sic] published in the journal of Cluster Computing. He says he has contacted the journal himself but has received no response. (Not sure who he reached out to.)

These are the articles he flagged with us:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10586-017-1216-6

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10586-018-1847-2

As my colleague picked up the initial complaint, I can’t see it, but from her response I’m gathering his name and photo were being used without his permission. In his messages that I can see, he refers to the articles as follows: “looks like a papermill on autopilot”.

As he appears to be a rather prominent figure (according to his Twitter profile https://twitter.com/neurobongo he is an IBM Director and has almost 10K followers, which we would consider influential), it would be great if you could look into this issue as soon as possible and follow up with him on his concerns.

Lawrence then reached out to Cox, explaining that Cluster Computing’s in-house rules require that authors submit a photo and short biography, and that the two studies were “reviewed and approved by the authors.” Cox, though, never approved the studies, or even knew that they existed, until December 2020. He also says that he doesn’t “know any of the authors, and this isn’t even really my field (though I am familiar enough to know that these are junk papers).” 

Daming Li, the corresponding author of the studies, told Retraction Watch that “these two papers are being withdrawn.” Here’s how he explained Cox’s inclusion as a co-author:

Xiang Yao (one of the authors) once said that he listened to David’s good ideas, so Xiang added David’s name. Xiang has been dismissed based on his words and deeds. 

In separate emails, Li explained that Yao was “a junior researcher,” and that he had been “punished” for his role in listing Cox’s name on the studies:

He has been dismissed by his University and Research Institutions.

He was also punished on the other hand. No one cooperated with him any more, and he was no longer involved in publishing any scientific research papers.

In fact, only the two papers he participated in had David’s name added. 

In both studies, Yao’s affiliation is listed as Zhuhai Da Hengqin Science and Technology Development Co., Ltd., in Zhuhai, China. We reached out to Yao through an email provided by Li — who is listed as a “senior researcher, postdoctoral fellow” on the company’s website — but did not receive a response. We couldn’t find any information on that website to confirm that Yao had been dismissed, but we have contacted the company and will update this article if we hear back.

Yao has published at least six studies with Li, including two in 2019, according to his profile page on dblp.org.

The editor of Cluster Computing, Salim Hariri, did not respond to our requests for comment. Anne Korn, the senior communications manager for Springer Nature, said that the publishing company is looking into the studies “as a priority”:

We were contacted by David Cox on social media, regarding authorship on two papers published in 2017 and 2018.

We are taking the issue extremely seriously and have been in touch with David Cox about this. 

We are currently looking into it as a priority and will take necessary action as appropriate, once an investigation into these concerns is complete. I’d be happy to update you with any further information once I have it.

Following our inquiries to Springer Nature, the publisher on January 25 added an editor’s note to one of the studies, “Mobile network intrusion detection for IoT system based on transfer learning algorithm:”

The Editorial team is currently investigating questions raised about authorship of this article. Further editorial action will be taken as appropriate once the investigation into the concerns is complete and all parties have been given an opportunity to respond in full. 

Cox, who isn’t buying Li’s excuse, said he is alarmed that it was so easy to use his name on the studies: 

With respect to them listening to my ‘great ideas’, while I would like to think I have many good ideas, I am not aware of instances where I would have spoken publicly about anything related to anything in these papers. Basically impossible to imagine how this would be an honest mistake, and it is alarming that SpringerNature doesn’t check with authors for consent.

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