Just two months after a PhD student at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia published a paper in August without the knowledge of his co-author, a professor at the university, the paper was retracted by Cellulose.
Here’s the notice for “Corrosion protection of steel sheets by chitosan from shrimp shells at acid pH,” by graduate student Ubong M. Eduok and professor Mazen M. Khaled (well, not really by Khaled):
The article DOI 10.1007/s10570-014-0384-2 has been retracted. The authors requested the retraction as the article was submitted to the journal in error without the prior consent or agreement of Mazen M. Khaled. The Publisher and Editor have agreed to retract the article after receiving a written explanation of the situation.
We spoke with journal editor Al French, who gave us some details:
The professor, Khaled, emailed the journal and asked that the article be retracted, because they hadn’t gotten his permission to submit the paper or even to write it as far as I know. It struck me as an overbearing response, though I agree that the student screwed up big time…the student also wrote me an email saying he’d done the wrong thing and agreed to the retraction…[the paper] had gone through the referee process and done well.
We’ve reached out to both Khaled and Eduok, and will update with any new information.
Hat tip Rolf Degen.
Did the student sign the disclosure/contribution agreement as the professor? I always have to sign. False signing is more than just screwing up.
The policy on disclosure / contribution agreements varies. Sometimes one author is allowed to sign on everyone’s behalf.