257 Articles from King Saud University Have Been Retracted
Up to now (2024-08-13), 257 articles with author(s) from King Saud University (KSU) and published before August 10th, 2024, have been retracted. This number ranks first among the Saudi universities which are named after the kings, followed by King Abdulaziz University (167) and King Khalid University (106).
Most of these articles were retracted due to academic misconducts, like plagiarism (of texts and/or images) as well as fake peer reviews. In recent years, the trend for academic misconduct cases increased at Saudi universities. 94 articles with KSU author(s) and published in 2022 were retracted, twice as the number (59) of the articles published in 2021.
The number for the articles published in 2023 and 2024 decreased, this is not likely because the misconduct cases actually decreased. After the articles were be published, it may take time to identify academic misconducts behind them. It is likely that the misconducts behind the articles published in 2023 and 2024 are not identified yet.
Indeed, a X user (@mumumouse2) flagged dozens of articles from KSU with potential academic misconduct, including but limited to manipulated figures and/or data.
The 5GH team also notices that misconducts in these cases involved international authorship, including authors from Pakistan, India, Egypt and others (like China and western nations), implying that we need a joined enforcement among the globe.
