More Papers Retracted from Acta Crystallographica Section E

The little Jinggangshan University was already famous for committing massive fraud in the journal Acta Crystallographica Section E. A few months ago, the journal retracted more than 70 papers from the school and the school responded by firing two members of its faculty responsible for the deed.

The story did not end there. On March 18, the same journal announced another whole-sale retraction of 39 articles. Fang Zhouzi reports that of the 39 articles, 37 were produced entirely by authors in mainland China. The other two included both Pakistani and Chinese authors.

23 of the 39 articles have authors from Jinggangshan University, with 20 of them having Jinggangshan faculty as either first or corresponding author. This time, it also involves faculty with higher ranks, including full professor, associated dean, and dean.

A spokesman for the school claims that this most recent scandal is "different in nature" from the last one and denies that forgery was involved.