The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers retracted 57 articles on October 1 for inadequate peer review, according to the publisher.
The papers appeared in the journal IEEE Access between July and September of 2020. The journal is open-access, with a current article processing charge of $1,995. It appears to have published more than 10,000 articles so far this year.
The notices retracting each article were identical, and stated:
After careful and considered review by a duly constituted expert committee, this article was retracted owing to irregularities in the peer review process, including acceptance for publication without the minimum number of independent reviews required by IEEE.
The authors were contacted about the retraction and did not dispute it.
Guillaume Cabanac, a computer scientist and sleuth, has raised concerns for years about questionable articles in the journal flagged with his Problematic Paper Screener. In 2022, he tweeted about 51 flagged papers in the journal, which became 72 in 2023 and 117 last month. He also posted on PubPeer about the findings, including references to retracted or questionable articles and the use of tortured phrases such as “profound learning” for “deep learning.”
We asked the journal how the problems with the articles came to light, if any more retractions were in the works, and if it had made any changes to its processes. Monika M. Stickel, spokesperson for the institute, responded:
IEEE is committed to taking all necessary measures to ensure the integrity of the scholarly record and is dedicated to publishing the highest quality technical results. We believe our preventive measures and efforts identify almost all papers submitted to us that do not meet our standards. We act accordingly when we become aware of possible issues with content, take the appropriate level of care and time in our review, and, if necessary, retract nonconforming publications. IEEE consistently looks to improve our processes based on industry best practices, and we use tools that we know improve quality and integrity. These tools become part of our processes as appropriate.
IEEE Access has also issued about 40 corrections this month removing retracted articles from papers’ reference lists.
In other journals, IEEE publishes conference proceedings Cabanac and other sleuths have said may have “systemic issues” with peer review. In previous waves of mass retractions, the publisher has pulled more than 7,000 conference abstracts over a decade, 400 papers from a conference in China, and dozens more from another journal and conference. ‘
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