UPDATE: Here’s the complete retraction notice including a list of each articles retracted.
From a SAGE News Release:
SAGE announces the retraction of 60 articles implicated in a peer review and citation ring at the Journal of Vibration and Control (JVC).
The full extent of the peer review ring has been uncovered following a 14 month SAGE-led investigation, and centres on the strongly suspected misconduct of Peter Chen, formerly of National Pingtung University of Education, Taiwan (NPUE) and possibly other authors at this institution.
In 2013 the then Editor-in-Chief of JVC, Professor Ali H. Nayfeh,and SAGE became aware of a potential peer review ring involving assumed and fabricated identities used to manipulate the online submission system SAGE Track powered by ScholarOne Manuscripts. Immediate action was taken to prevent JVC from being exploited further, and a complex investigation throughout 2013 and 2014 was undertaken with the full cooperation of Professor Nayfeh and subsequently NPUE.
In total 60 articles have been retracted from JVC after evidence led to at least one author or reviewer being implicated in the peer review ring. Now that the investigation is complete, and the authors have been notified of the findings, we are in a position to make this statement.
While investigating the JVC papers submitted and reviewed by Peter Chen, it was discovered that the author had created various aliases on SAGE Track, providing different email addresses to set up more than one account. Consequently, SAGE scrutinised further the co-authors of and reviewers selected for Peter Chen’s papers, these names appeared to form part of a peer review ring. The investigation also revealed that on at least one occasion, the author Peter Chen reviewed his own paper under one of the aliases he had created.
Following Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines, SAGE and Professor Nayfeh contacted Peter Chen with an opportunity to address the accusations of misconduct. After a series of unsatisfactory responses from Peter Chen, in September 2013 NPUE were notified and have since been working closely alongside SAGE and JVC to uncover the full extent of the peer review and subsequent citation ring. SAGE has notified Thomson Reuters about the citation ring and both parties have worked together to index the retractions in full.
In May 2014 NPUE informed SAGE and JVC that Peter Chen had resigned from his post on 2 February 2014.
Additional Info/Background
See Also: Committee on Publication Ethics Guidelines
See Also: SAGE membership of OASPA is reinstated (April 29, 2014)
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