Just as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was the first of 14 books in a series, our recent coverage of a paper on “Tin Man syndrome” seems to have sequels. After we wrote about a case study describing a man with his heart in his abdomen retracted for plagiarizing images from an April Fools’ joke, a reader flagged yet another paper using the same image.
As we previously reported, the authors of a “rare case report” appearing in Medicine claimed they had encountered a case of a man with asymptomatic “ectopia cordis interna,” in which his heart was in his abdomen. After the article was retracted, the corresponding author admitted the photos had been taken from a 2015 April Fools’ paper in Radiopaedia describing the same (fictitious) condition.
Following that coverage, a reader did a reverse image search of the X-ray in both papers and found a 2021 article from Scientific Programming, published by Wiley. The study recommends a non-conventional ventilation option for treating neonatal respiratory distress syndrome. The paper has been cited twice, according to Clarivate’s Web of Science.
Figure 2 of the paper purports to show a neonate X-ray where the “heart contour of diaphragm was not seen.” David Sanders, an image expert and biologist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., told us it “is indisputable” that the figure “derives from” the Tin Man Syndrome hoax paper. Aside from similarities within the image itself, Sanders pointed to the label in the upper right hand corner, which has helped us identify other instances of reuse.
On September 9, a spokesperson from Wiley, which publishes Scientific Programming, told us they had initiated an investigation after we flagged concerns.
Sanders said the paper has even more flaws.The references of the paper “are a mess,” including number 8, which describes an algorithm for removing shadows of moving objects. Reference 5, which the authors point to when sourcing the term “white lung,” makes no mention of the condition.
Corresponding author Xin Chen, a researcher at The First Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical College in China, did not respond to our request for comment.
Chen and two coauthors on the Scientific Programming article lost a paper in 2022 from the Journal of Healthcare Engineering, a Wiley title formerly owned by Hindawi, which Wiley acquired in 2021. The retraction notice says the paper was investigated by the Hindawi Research Integrity team, which raised concerns “that the peer review process has been compromised.”
Wiley has retracted over 11,000 papers in journals it acquired from Hindawi, a known target of paper mill activity.
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