[MOD NOTE:  Kudos to Sage for investigating this so fully.  But just what
is a Peer Review and Citation Ring, and how do you create one??  Have
there been such instances previously?]


From: Gary Price <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, Jul 9, 2014 at 4:27 PM

From News Release:

http://www.sagepub.com/press/2014/july/1.sp

"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In total 60 articles have been retracted from JVC after evidence led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.

Follwing 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/Source URL:
http://www.sagepub.com/press/2014/july/1.sp

Gary D. Price, MLIS
Co-Founder and Editor, Library Journal's INFOdocket.com
Co-Founder and Editor, FullTextReports.com
Information Industry Analyst
Librarian
http://INFOdocket.com
http://FullTextReports.com