Investigations and Actions


Students from Hubei University Founded and Operated the Hudiandian Paper Mill

Recently, the 5GH team found 3 academic papers with manipulated figure(s). All these papers were co-authored by the founder(s) of the Wuhan Hudiandian Technology Co., Ltd. (武汉胡电电科技有限公司), HU Shengnan (胡胜男), and/or LI Mengying (李梦颖). Further investigation suggests the Hudiandian company or its founder(s) sold the data, which was part of HU’s and LI’s researches at Hubei University when they were postgraduate students under the supervision of Dr. WU Huimin (吴慧敏). The 5GH team would like to name this paper mill as “Hudiandian Paper Mill” (“胡电电论文工厂”).


40% Articles Co-authored by Chinese and Iranian Researchers Are Unreliable

A current investigation by the 5GH team reveals that on the journal "Material Chemistry and Physics", 40% articles with coauthors from China and Iran have unreliable data issues. The team investigated 34 papers obtained on October 3rd, 2024, using a searching strategy of "Journal or Book Title: Materials Chemistry and Physics, Author Affiliation: China and Iran" on ScienceDirect website, and discovered the above-mentioned outcomes.


A Letter to the Saudi Royal Family - Asking for Reactions against Academic Misconducts at Saudi Universities

We are writing this letter in the hope of expressing our concerns on the misconducts in Saudi universities and asking for reactions to fight against them.


Problematic Published Name Records on Clarivate Researcher Profiles

These cases demonstrate that the Clarivate profiles are unreliable to be used as a index to judge the academic outcomes for the researchers. The 5GH team urges Clarivate to fix this problem.


List of Authorship-for-Sale Offering

It is a list of authorship-for-sale offering, collected by the 5GH Foundation with help from individuals and teams all over the word. We are publishing this list, asking for any clue about the publications of these articles. If you find any information about the publication of any article on this list, please contact us at 5GH@5gh.org.cn, or the publishers/journals.


Professor from University of Nottingham Earns Authorships by “Reviewing and Editing” Manuscripts, mostly with Tsinghua

YAN Yuying, a professor affiliated to both the University of Nottingham, UK, and the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, earned 11 authorships in 2024, with his contribution of “Writing – review & editing”. An investigation by the 5GH team reveals.


Misconduct Researcher List

Researchers with academic misconduct records are listed. The cases of these academic misconducts were investigated by the 5GH team and our allies. If you (1) want to propose some other misconduct researchers, and/or (2) have comments on the researchers listed, please contact us at: 5GH@5gh.org.cn


7 of 23 Articles in a Elsevier Special Issue Came from a Same Institution in China

Concerns are raised that XIN guest-edited the special issue to promote the publication from IARRP. But it may be another reason: XIN was not able to recruit enough articles, so that her friends in IARRP "helped" her. Or it may be other reasons we do not know yet. But the scientific community wants an answer to this question.


Acadamia Europaea Fellow Got Involved in Unethical Editorial Practices

CHEN Jianmin, a professor at Fudan University and a fellow of Acadamia Europaea, is currently accused to get involved in questionable editorial practices. The investigation by the 5GH team revealed that he got involved in 44 cases of unethical practices, including 2 cases of Edit-for-Themself and 42 cases of Edit-for-Pal, all of these editorial practices were given to the articles on “Science of the Total Environment”, an Elsevier title.


Chinese Secondary School Students Win on the Match of Academic Publishing

The current and the previous investigations suggest abnormal publication records from Chinese secondary school students, compared to their counterparts from the other part of the globe. However, it is hard to say "we win".


WANG Aijie’s Questionable Editorial Contributions on Environmental Research

Previously, the 5GH team and our international allies exposed some questionable editorial contributions of WANG Aijie as Editor-in-Chief on Environmental Research, an Elsevier title. As the investigation went on, we found more concerning editorial activities from Wang, a professor at Harbin Institute of Technology and CAS Research Center for Eco-Environmental Science, and she was also a winner for the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, China. Here, we update the list for her questionable editorial contributions.


4 in 16 Article on One Elsevier Special Issue Were Published by the Guest Editor Jong Seong Khim

Recently, the 5GH team found another case that the guest editor for an Elsevier special issue violated the rules from the publisher.


Conflict of Interest on Special Issue "Cleaner Production for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals"

Recently, concerns are raised on Giannetti's articles on special issue "Cleaner Production for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals" on the journal "Journal of Cleaner Production"


Editors Behind Santosh's Papers

Recently, the 5GH team and independent investigator(s) examined Santosh's papers on Geoscience Frontiers (GEOSCI FRONT), Gondwana Research (GONDWANA RES), Geosystems and Geoenvironment (GEO GEO), Geological Journal (GEOL J) from 2020 to recently, and found 65% (99/152) of the pepers wih authore-editor conflict.


A Malaysian Paper Mill Is Selling Authorship on Chinese Social Media

The 5GH team found that a Xiaohongshu account (ID: 1132185804) registered in Malaysia was selling authorship of academic papers




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