What on earth is the science world coming to? We used to describe crack dealers like this.
From Retraction Watch:
SAGE Publishers is retracting 60 articles from the Journal of Vibration and Control after an investigation revealed a “peer review and citation ring” involving a professor in Taiwan.
Here’s the beginning of a statement from SAGE:
London, UK (08 July 2014) – 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™.
Too much grant money chasing too few facts?
A SAGE spokeperson went on record, in response to this question:
Is there any concern this problem might be more widespread?
with
We have undertaken a thorough investigation into this peer review ring and are confident that we have uncovered the full extent of the problem. Although attempts to mislead the academic community are extremely rare, there will occasionally be fraudulent and unethical individuals seeking to abuse the system. Both SAGE and Journal of Vibration and Control are committed to upholding the true spirit of peer review while continuing to introduce new measures to reinforce the review process.
That’s good to hear, but we didn’t even know about this one before. Future vigilance won’t likely be wasted.
See also: Peer review: Another citation stacking scheme outed
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