Iranian scientists have lost one of two articles they submitted — and published — simultaneously to different journals. Watch as confusion ensues.
The retracted paper, “Permeability Estimation of a Reservoir Based on Neural Networks Coupled with Genetic Algorithms,” appeared online in August 2011 in Petroleum Science and Technology, a Taylor & Francis journal. According to the liner notes, the paper had been received on January 15, 2010 and accepted a few weeks later. It has been cited once since, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge, by its authors, in a paper published in the same journal.
Meanwhile, in August 2011 the authors (minus one name) also published “Evolving neural network using real coded genetic algorithm for permeability estimation of the reservoir,” in Expert Systems With Applications, an Elsevier title.
The standing paper — which has been cited seven times — now carries the following erratum notice (dated far into the future, September 2013):
The publisher regrets that the printed version of the above article should have listed the below referenced article in the list of references. The publisher would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Permeability Estimation of a Reservoir Based on Neural Networks Coupled with Genetic Algorithms Volume 29, Issue 20, 2011, Petroleum Science and Technology Journal, pages 2132–2141.
Actually, that’s not quite right. For starters, the PST paper should not be listed among the references because, well, it shouldn’t have existed in the first place. But, now that it does exist — or, at least, did — it shouldn’t be cited because, as the retraction notice states:
Taylor & Francis is retracting the paper titled “Permeability Estimation of a Reservoir Based on Neural Networks Coupled with Genetic Algorithms” by R. Irani, M. Shabazian, R. Nasimi published in Petroleum Science and Technology, Volume 29, Issue 20, pages 2132–2141. Upon investigation, it was determined that a similar article, titled “Evolving neural network using real coded genetic algorithm for permeability estimation of the reservoir” was submitted by the authors and simultaneously published in Expert Systems with Applications, Volume 38, Issue 8, pages 9862–9866.
As a result, the article published in Petroleum Science and Technology has been retracted and should not be cited in the electronic or print version of the journal.
Looks like the authors requested the erratum to cover up their tracks, then had T&F catch up with both them and Elsevier over the duplication. Let’s see if the erratum now gets retracted.