From: Mary Summerfield <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 01:52:27 +0000

Thomson Reuters looks for such activities as well and penalizes
publications that are found to be involved.

Mary Summerfield

> On Jul 9, 2014, at 6:48 PM, "LIBLICENSE" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> [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 In total 60 articles have been retracted from JVC after evidence led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