The Journal of Asian Earth Sciences has retracted a 2004 article by a scholar in India who resused text from a previous work on which he was a co-author.
The article, “Finite strain and deformation from a refolded region of the Dudatoli-Almora Crystalline, Kumaun Lesser Himalaya,” was written by Hari B. Srivastava, of Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi. Here’s what it had to say:
The outcrop of the southern extension of Dudatoli Almora Crystalline Group around Tamadhun in the Kumaun Lesser Himalaya exhibits a map-scale refolded structure. The major lithological units are phyllites, schists and gneisses. The gneisses exhibit deformed feldspar porphyroblasts on mesoscopic and microscopic scales. Deformed feldspar porphyroblasts, were used under the microscope to estimate finite strain in the rocks. Different analytical methods have been compared, of which the R (sub f) /phi method is found to be reliable and sensitive to minor changes in strain pattern.The rocks of the area have undergone three phases of deformation D1, D2 and D3, synchronous to three phases of folding F1, F2 and F3. The early isoclinal folds (F1) of similar type (class 2), appear to have developed by a buckling process. The second (F2) open concentric (class 1B type) folds developed on the limbs of the F1 folds. The presence of rotated feldspar grains and S-C structures on the limbs of F2 folds reveals a flexural-slip mechanism for their development. F3 chevron folds are restricted to the phyllites of the area. The deformation of feldspar grains in the gneisses involves modification of the fabric from low strain (E (sub s) =0.34) to high strain (E (sub s) =1.10). The strain variations can be related to the general fold geometry and suggest a competency contrast between the matrix and feldspar grains which increase with increased strain intensity and magnitude. This study reveals that the present day strain pattern in the gneissic rocks originated by flexural-slip mechanisms, which took place during the second phase of folding and modified the strain patterns developed during earlier isoclinal folding.
According to the retraction notice:
The article duplicates significant parts of a previous paper by the author, that had already appeared in the Memoir Geological Society of India 52 (2003) 427–446. Whilst permission was given by the copyright holders of the original work, the original work was not cited in the references or acknowledged, neither were the coauthors of the original paper. Re-use of any data should be appropriately cited and contributors acknowledged. As such this article represents an abuse of the scientific publishing system. The scientific community takes a very strong view on this matter and apologies are offered to readers of the journal that this was not detected during the submission process.
The paper has been cited just once, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge.