Concerns on the Authorship of 4 Articles from Xiamen University
An update [Update 20250326] has been added to this report, bringing the total number of articles with authorship issues to 5.
The 5GH Team discovered four articles [1-4] from Xiamen University are coauthored by HU Shengnan (胡圣男, affiliated to Xiamen University) and LI Mengying (李梦颖, affiliated to Hubei University), who are believed to be associated with the Hudiandian Paper Mill [5]. This discovery raises concerns about the authorship of these articles.
Except for LI Mengying, all the authors of these four articles are from Xiamen University. However, the articles state that LI Mengying was affiliated with Hubei University. When contacted by the 5GH Team, Dr. TIAN Na (田娜) from Xiamen University, who is the corresponding author for these four articles, confirmed that HU Shengnan was in a Ph.D. program under her supervision. On the other hand, Dr. REN Jun from Hubei University stated that LI Mengying had no longer been associated with Hubei University after her graduation. Therefore, at the time these studies were conducted, LI Mengying was not affiliated with Hubei University.
The contribution of LI Mengying was stated as "performed DFT calculations" in article [3], and as "made substantial contributions to conception and design of the study, performed data analysis and interpretation and wrote the draft of manuscript" in article [2]. However, given her false affiliation, her involvement in the Hudiandian Paper Mill, and her romantic relationship with HU Shengnan, her actual contributions and coauthorship to these articles are highly questionable.
Recently, the 5GH Team received a document indicating that the master's degree of HU Shengnan was revoked at the end of 2024. However, Dr. TIAN Na declined to comment on this matter immediately.
The 5GH Team appreciate the efforts from Hubei University during the investigation into the Hudiandian Paper Mill. But the slow reactions from Xiamen University suggest Dr. TIAN Na and her team are reluctant to take responsibility.
[Update 20250326] An additional article [6] with similar authorship pattern to articles [1-4] is found. The article [6] is also coauthored by HU Shengnan affiliated to Xiamen University and LI Mengying affiliated to Hubei University. The affiliation of LI Mengying is also false due to the above-mentioned reason that she was no longer associated with Hubei University.
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