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Kashif, a chemist at Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, looked at the paper, he noticed “substantial overlap” with an unpublished review article he had submitted to other journals.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 “My unpublished work was replicated without attribution, undermining months of effort.”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Kashif said he had hoped to publish his own manuscript in RSC Advances after the copied version was retracted, “as my work had already cleared peer review.”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.”
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How does one “accidentally” submit someone else’s paper with one’s own name on it?
That is even an absurd statement he made. I think it was intentional
That is the issue, isn’t it? If he accidentally submitted someone else’s work, wouldn’t it also identify the other’s authors? The most likely explanation is that it’s a lie and the work was stolen.
Exactly. How can it happen? If the file is uploaded by mistake, the original authors’ names must be there. How will they change? What’s there to investigate? It’s just a case of malpractice. That’s all
Beyond the rather non-credible explanation from Kumar, I think some sleuths could have a field day looking at that author list and their connection.
Or they already had. At least author Rustem Zairov has 5 papers flagged for what seems to be fabricated (XRD) data https://pubpeer.com/search?q=Zairov.
Me also experienced almost the same. The authors removed my title and overlapped it with theirs whose tittle appears. Iwas only recognized in the footnote (as copy right).
One of the sources of corruption is plagiarism of work done by others. In many universities, even in Malaysia, lecturers who wish to be promoted fast are known to submit works done by students, as their own work. So if lecturers cheat and are corrupt, what do you expect of their students do, when they graduate and take up positions at workplace. Corruption is like a pandemic that needs to be nipped in the bud. Eg no lecturer promotion until it’s verified that all papers submitted for reviews are genuinely their own work.
This is why I’m not sharing any of my ideas until my book is published!
Ideas are not copyrighted in any case!
“Ideas are not copyrighted in any case!”
Did you read the whole post? The victim also emphasized attribution. We are not interested in copyright (in fact, we are often abused by it by publishers).
It goes against the very foundations of science to run around stealing other people’s ideas, whatever they may be, without a proper attribution.
Oh Wow @
Kumar is a research thief in the scientific community because how can we believe that it was by mistake when manuscript he submitted in the journal, the mournal may have some questions about the research. When Kumar et al., corrected them how they don’t know that it’s someone’s else research data? He must be banned 🚫 in the scientific community to avoid this type robberies
Fully agree. These academic THIEVES must be banned for few years at least.
I am personally acquainted with Kashif and am aware of the undue pressure he faced for not consulting the editor regarding the retraction. It is concerning to see Kumar claim that he “accidentally submitted the wrong manuscript,” given the indirect pressure he exerted on Kashif. Such a statement appears disingenuous and lacks credibility under the circumstances.
wow. How far RSC has fallen if it accepted a stolen manuscript rejected by two ‘lesser’ publications?
It’s hard to believe someone would accidentally publish someone else’s work under their own name. This isn’t a mistake, but rather academic dishonesty. The pressure to publish is overwhelming scholars, leading some to do desperate things. This pressure is fueling misconduct. To address this issue, academia should focus on quality over quantity. That’s the only way to stop this madness.
That’s another reason for sending articles to a preprint server before sending it out for review.
So sad 😢
We know, there are horror some reviewers intentionally delay the review process while he push his PhD and postdoc to publish similar thing by his name. This one is more blatant but similar type of research misconduct. To me it is not a new.
This Kumar guy is a dishonest and must remove him from all scientific review process for life.
This is not a mistake. Most of this publishers are fund of doing this by dealing the reviews. I submitted a paper for publication this is 4th month up till this moment no response from this outlet. I strongly believe they have a negative motive.
“‘Beyond personal frustration, this raises serious ethical questions about peer review integrity and the exploitation of confidential submissions,’ Kashif said.”
For this reason alone, one should always put each and every manuscript to a pre-print server before a submission. Of course, stealing of ideas (or even manuscripts, as in this case) happens regardless, but at least you have a proof of record (and with a DOI nowadays).
I am getting worried about the increasing space of academic/intellectual fraud going on among some unintelligent ‘smart’ persons in India. These people are a shame and a misrepresentation of what Indian science and technology represents on the global stage. I and some people have personally experienced some of the other types of unacceptable practices with some Indian ‘intellectuals’ who are just the ‘bad eggs.’ Some of them think they are wise and smart and steal ideas pretentiously, and some use you like a donkey and think you don’t see what is going on. Anyways, these kinds of people engage in such to gain cheap popularity that does not last forever.
Getting to the top is not the problem but how you got there is the most important thing. If you think you can go through the road by stamping on people thinking they are fools, it is just a matter of time…