In recent weeks Sage has retracted batches of articles published in two journals it acquired from IOS Press in 2023. In each case, the retractions were for manipulation of, and concerns about, peer review.
The first tranche of papers was retracted July 15 from Journal of Intelligent and Fuzzy Systems (JIFS) and constituted 43 papers, some of which had been presented at a conference in Türkiye. According to the retraction notice, after an internal investigation, Sage “became aware that the submissions contain indicators of third-party involvement and attempts to manipulate the peer-review process” in the special issue.
The second batch of retractions applied to 34 papers in the International Journal of Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Engineering Systems from 2017 to 2025. The August 5 notice cites suspicion of third party involvement, peer review issues, citation manipulation and non-standard language, including tortured phrases, as reasons for retracting the articles. Tortured phrases can indicate plagiarism.
Since acquiring IOS Press in November 2023, Sage set the record for most retractions for a single journal when it retracted over 1,500 papers from JIFS. The move came after Clarivate put the journal’s indexing on hold for concerns about article quality. Its entry on the Clarivate website still shows the “on hold” flag. Chris Burnage, public affairs manager at Sage, told us the latest retractions were a result of a separate investigation from the one in 2024-2025.
Sage has taken similar action for other former IOS Press journals, including 45 papers in Clinical Hemorheology and Microcirculation retracted in November.
Sage defines third-party involvement as referring to paper mill activity, peer review manipulation, or “any other evidence suggesting the wholesale generation of research submissions.”
Among the authors of the retracted papers from JIFS were organizers and session chairs for the 2020 International Conference on Intelligent and Fuzzy Systems, run out of Istanbul Technical University in July of that year. Of the retracted papers, eight were coauthored by at least one of the six editors of the published proceedings.
One of those editors, Istanbul Technical University engineering economics professor Cengiz Kahraman, is listed as author on six of those articles. He told us the authors had sent “numerous emails” to Sage raising objections to the retractions and called the publisher’s actions “legally and editorially unacceptable.”
“Retraction decisions are complex and lengthy processes that should be concluded by taking into account the editorial and peer-review system under which the articles were originally published,” Kahraman said.
Burnage told us the publisher has “limited information about the original publication process.”
Selcuk Cebi, an engineer at Yildiz Technical University in Istanbul, was also an editor of the conference proceedings. He told us he has “never been presented with any article-specific evidence indicating unauthorized third-party involvement or manipulation of the peer-review process in relation to my paper.”
Cebi and Kahraman lost another paper last year as part of another bulk retraction in JIFS. Cebi told us he sent Sage “the original submitted manuscript, revised versions, reviewer response documents, and the final accepted manuscript” in his appeal of the retraction, but has not received a “substantive” response.
The mass retraction at International Journal of Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Engineering Systems applied to papers from six volumes at the journal. Authors on all papers except one were affiliated with institutions in China. Gui-Wu (Guiwu) Wei, a professor of business administration at Sichuan Normal University in Chengdu, was author on seven of the retracted papers. He did not respond to our request for comment.
Sage isn’t alone in its attempts to clean up journals it acquired. Wiley bought Hindawi in 2021 and stopped using the brand name in 2024 after retracting thousands of papers and closing journals overrun by paper mills.
“Since acquiring IOS Press, we have worked to integrate the portfolio into Sage’s editorial, technology and research integrity processes,” Laura West, communications and public affairs manager at Sage, told us. “As part of that effort, we have applied the same rigorous publication ethics and research integrity standards that guide all of our journals publishing.”
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