Majority of 58 Fake Articles Linked to Tehran University Veterinary School

On Tuesday, Shahin Akhoundzadeh, Deputy of Research and Technology at Iran's Ministry of Health, announced the discovery of a "network for buying and selling articles both domestically and internationally." He stated that the majority of the 58 fake articles recently reported are associated with the "Veterinary School of Tehran University." Last week, the journal "Nature" reported that 58 articles authored by 282 researchers residing in Iran had been removed from its scientific collections by this publisher, one of the most reputable in the academic publishing industry. Springer Nature indicated that the peer review process for these articles appeared to have been inadequately conducted. According to Mehr News Agency, Shahin Akhoundzadeh mentioned that they reviewed these articles, and a specialized team monitored them, discovering that all 58 articles were published through an illegal publishing company engaged in buying and selling articles and theses. The Deputy of Research and Technology at the Ministry of Health added that those involved in the preparation of these 58 articles were mostly students and non-faculty members, but this does not absolve them of the significant mistake they made. He also stated that three leads had been found in this network, one of which indicated that a significant portion of these 58 articles belonged to the Veterinary School of Tehran University. Another lead was that someone from within the country informed the publisher "Springer" about this violation, while the publisher had not noticed the misconduct. Shahin Akhoundzadeh emphasized that this network has now been identified, and various judicial and legal sectors are working on it, with severe actions against these individuals expected soon. In this context, Vahid Ahmadi, Deputy Researcher at the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology, stated on Tuesday that "all universities have been informed to pursue the scientific misconduct committed by some Iranian researchers." Last week, "Nature" noted that in all the articles removed from the scientific publications by Springer Nature, there were indications of manipulation in the identification of the main author and manipulation in the peer review process, with evidence of academic theft present in 70% of these articles. According to Ms. Amy Brookwit, spokesperson for the journal "BioMed," 57% of the articles identified by this publication showed evidence of manipulation in the peer review process, and 93% of them contained signs of academic theft.