A chemist at a university in Pakistan found a surprise when he opened an alert from ResearchGate on a newly published paper on a topic related to his own work.
When Muhammad Kashif, a chemist at Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, looked at the paper, he noticed “substantial overlap” with an unpublished review article he had submitted to other journals. On closer inspection, he found it was indeed his paper — published by other authors.
“I was shocked and deeply concerned,” Kashif told Retraction Watch. “My unpublished work was replicated without attribution, undermining months of effort.”
The paper, “Bismuth-based nanoparticles and nanocomposites: synthesis and applications,” appeared in RSC Advances last December. One of the authors said he uploaded the wrong file by “mistake” when submitting to the journal, and a retraction is in progress.
Kashif submitted his manuscript to the Archives of Advanced Engineering Science, a title of Singapore-based Bon View Publishing, in March 2024, according to emails we reviewed. He withdrew it after the first round of review, then submitted it in April to Elsevier’s Materials Today Communications, which rejected the article.
The paper in RSC Advances was submitted in August 2024, according to the journal. The first author, Sujit Kumar, is an assistant professor in the department of electrical and electronics engineering at Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering in Bengaluru, India. Kumar had reviewed Kashif’s manuscript for AAES, said managing editor Fay Ge.
The file names of Kashif’s manuscript and one of his own were similar, Kumar told us, and he submitted the wrong paper to RSC Advances.
“It happened because of my negligence,” Kumar said. “I assure you that this type of mistake will not be on my end in the future.”
Russell Cox, an editor-in-chief of RSC Advances, confirmed the journal’s ethics team is investigating the paper.
“We follow the COPE guidelines in these matters, so I am unable to share confidential information with you regarding the outcome at this stage,” Cox told us. “However, the investigation is certainly ‘active’ and I would expect a clear outcome in due course.”
Kashif said he had hoped to publish his own manuscript in RSC Advances after the copied version was retracted, “as my work had already cleared peer review.” But he thinks the journal is taking too long to act. “Given their lack of urgency, I am now pursuing publication in a different journal that prioritizes ethical standards and timely resolutions,” he said.
“Beyond personal frustration, this raises serious ethical questions about peer review integrity and the exploitation of confidential submissions,” Kashif said. He is a “young researcher who is committed to do best for Science,” he said. “This thing really shattered my heart.”
Like Retraction Watch? You can make a tax-deductible contribution to support our work, follow us on X or Bluesky, like us on Facebook, follow us on LinkedIn, add us to your RSS reader, or subscribe to our daily digest. If you find a retraction that’s not in our database, you can let us know here. For comments or feedback, email us at [email protected].