Five months after he was fired by ministerial order, an Iraqi professor of physics at the center of a massive publishing scam submitted a manuscript to a Wiley chemistry journal claiming affiliation with Columbia University in New York City.
The paper also stated the physicist, Oday A. Al-Owaedi, was affiliated with the University of Babylon in Hilla, Iraq, although he was permanently dismissed from his position last year.
As we reported at the time, Al-Owaedi defrauded “researchers by collecting money from them under the pretext of publishing their papers in reputable international journals as promised, while in fact falsifying and forging publication in fake websites,” according to a ministerial order we obtained.
Al-Owaedi, who is corresponding author on the new paper, told us the Columbia affiliation “was a mistake” and that the journal was “currently correcting the article.” As to the University of Babylon, he said he hadn’t “completely severed ties with” the institution.
“This week, a court ruling will be issued acquitting me, and I will return to teaching,” Al-Owaedi, who is also a politician, wrote in an email. “According to the Iraqi judiciary, and since my case is still in court, I am still an employee and research professor at the University of Babylon, and I have the right to use my affiliation with the university.”
He also repeated earlier legal threats against Retraction Watch, stating he would come to Denmark, where one of our contributors is based, and “file a lawsuit against you in the Danish courts, and then in the United States and everywhere else where I can obtain justice because you have wronged me, defamed me, and tarnished my reputation.”
Al-Owaedi, who is still listed as a faculty member on the University of Babylon’s website, added: “And please know that if I have only one day left to live, I will take all my rights from you, through the law.”
The scam that led to Al-Owaedi’s dismissal centered on a conference organized by a prominent association of Iraqi academics. Al-Owaedi chaired the organizing committee for the event and told prospective attendees he had made a deal with Elsevier to publish hundreds of papers at discounted prices.
In reality, however, the agreement was with an agency that bore all the hallmarks of a full-fledged paper mill, our investigation found. A journal website and several acceptance letters provided as evidence of successful publication turned out to be forged.
The publishing scheme involved hundreds of thousands of dollars paid into Al-Owaedi’s bank account by unwitting researchers, according to documents we obtained. It is unclear what happened with the money, which Al-Owaedi claimed he transferred to the agency.
A Wiley spokesperson said the company is “currently investigating this article in accordance with COPE guidelines and will take appropriate measures once the investigation has concluded.”
The spokesperson also said all manuscripts submitted to Wiley journals “undergo a robust screening process, which includes 25+ automated integrity checks, including for institutional email addresses, existing affiliations, and other author verification checks.”
The email address listed for Al-Owaedi is a personal Gmail account. According to the spokesperson, the publisher performs “additional checks when authors do not provide institutional email addresses. However, a non-institutional email on its own is not an integrity concern and authors generally may hold several affiliations.”
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