Retired 11 research by Spanish scientist Rafael Luque for fraudulent practices | Science | EUROtoday

The Spanish chemist Rafael Luque went as much as the stage of the Kremlin State Palace, in Moscow, three months in the past. In the official video it’s seen that it was plethoric. I used to be going to obtain a tribute, for being some of the cited scientists on the planet and having contributed their collaborations to the meteoric rise of the Russian University of Peoples within the Peoples within the rankings of the very best tutorial establishments on the planet. The gala, a present with dancers and even a army choir, remembered his greatest occasions, when he acquired applause within the Spanish press and received worldwide awards. Then it appeared like a world eminence, however it was merely mocking the foundations of the system, with the identical tough technique that different 1000’s of researchers executed on the identical time all through the planet. On December 1, 2022, Luque was expelled from his college, that of Córdoba, with a historic sanction. A brand new software now permits to investigate the way it ascended to the summit and the way it cleared from it, to being honored within the Kremlin as “prorruso”. It already has 11 research retired by fraudulent practices.

Luque, born in Córdoba 46 years in the past, is suspiciously prolific. He printed a examine each two working days in 2022. He even accelerated his rhythm in December of that yr, when the language technology program with synthetic intelligence chatgpt appeared. “These months have been quite productive, because the truth is that articles for which I previously needed two or three days now I do in one day,” he acknowledged in a video name with the nation in March 2023, from a resort with ornament kitsch In Dhahran, headquarters of the Saudi oil business. This newspaper has tried to speak to him once more over the past month, with out receiving a solution. Luque is devoted to the so -called inexperienced chemistry, which tries to synthesize merchandise, resembling medication and fuels, producing much less residues.

Publishing insubstantial research resembling Churros is among the tips to climb within the rankings teachers An evaluation of the American statistic John Ioannidis detected about 3,200 scientists – 23 of them in Spain, together with Luque – who publish greater than 60 works yearly: at the very least one each 5 days. These hyperprolific researchers elevated particularly in three nations: Thailand (they multiplied by 19 in seven years), Saudi Arabia (for 11) and Spain (by 11). Also in India (by 10), Russia (for six) and Pakistan (for six). Precisely in these nations, Luque wove a huge community of a whole bunch of collaborators, which facilitated that increasingly more research printed, which in flip have been very talked about by those self same colleagues. Thus he entered the distinguished listing of very cited scientists in 2018, ready by the Multinational Clarivate.

The Spanish is on its strategy to turning into one of many researchers with probably the most research retired by fraudulent practices all over the world, in keeping with Argos information, a brand new software to watch scientific integrity. His first deleted work was an article on the synthesis of chemical compounds with alleged medical purposes, which he signed with three co -authors of Pakistan, two from China and three from Saudi Arabia. The Wiley publishing home, after verifying the “systematic manipulation” of the outcomes, withdrew it on July 19, 2023. Last October, ELSEVIER publish He authored the best bidder for a couple of hundred {dollars}, in order that his curriculum doesn’t do with out doing something. His eleventh retracting examine arrived three months in the past, days earlier than his tribute on the Kremlin. It was a job on chemical reactions catalysts, headed by an Iranian. Elsevier eradicated it after detecting “data manipulation.”

The Argos software analyzes 57 million scientific research daily in the hunt for indicators of fraudulent practices. It is a product designed by Scitility, a public utility firm created a yr in the past by the Spanish pc scientist Antonio José Molina, his Dutch colleague Jan-Erik de Boer and the American mathematician Gary Cornell. Massive information evaluation lets you uncover suspicious patterns. In the case of Rafael Luque, they’re completely irregular. They even counsel the existence of a global plot of scientists devoted to inflate their very own status with traps and thus falsify the rankings Of the very best universities on the planet.

Molina, 40 -year -old Sevillano, exposes the placing chemist figures on the request of El País. That they withdraw a examine, he emphasizes, it’s uncommon. Of the greater than 100 million scientists analyzed on the planet, 99.8% don’t have any retracting work. Rafael Luque has printed at the very least 744 articles in simply over a decade. With its 11 research eradicated by publishers, it’s already “in the top 0.1% of the most retracting authors of all time”, in keeping with Molina. The pc scientist highlights Luque’s unusual corporations. It is troublesome to discover a retracting scientist, however the Spanish chemist has collaborated with 198 of them.

Some circumstances are scandalous. He has signed eight research with Ashok Pandey, an Indian chemist who already has 43 works eradicated. He has additionally been co -author with the Indian engineer Pravin P. Patil (23 retraction), the Iraqi Mohammad Sajadi (20), the Pakistani Shafaqat Ali (11), the Iranian Pouya Ghamari Kargar (9), the Russian Dmitry Olegovich Bokov (9), the Finnish Mika Sillamanpä (6) Chinese Wanxi Peng (5) and Vietnamese Anh Tuan Hoang (5). “Rafael Luque has signed studies with 12 scientists who are in the top 1% of the most retracting authors of all time,” Molina warns. These poisonous collaborations make the Argos software calculate that Córdoba’s chemist has one other 96 research at excessive threat of being eliminated and 335 at medium threat. They are figures that rival these of the rector of the University of Salamanca, Juan Manuel Corchado, and his collaborators, with 75 research eradicated by fraudulent practices.

The engine to cheat is cash. Some tutorial establishments combat to signal probably the most cited scientists, as a result of having them of their ranks provides many factors within the rankings Of the very best universities on the planet. An investigation by El País revealed two years in the past that the Saudi universities supplied bribes, as much as 70,000 euros per yr within the private checking account, in order that these academics mining on their office – within the inside database of the listing of very cited scientists of Clarivate – and falsely figured as Saudíes. Two dozen Spanish researchers participated on this trick.

Rafael Luque was one in all them, though he says he didn’t cost the 70,000 euros per yr in his pocket. As of 2019, he modified his information, to report within the first place as a researcher on the Rey Saúd University, in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), behind the backs of the general public establishment that paid the wage of the official, the University of Córdoba, which with out him collapsed about 150 positions within the rating from Shanghai. In the one dialog he has had with this newspaper, the chemist admitted that he was paid luxurious accommodations and journeys in preferential class. The University of Córdoba, after discovering the actions of its professor and never believing its explanations, expelled Luque on December 1, 2022, with a sanction of 13 years with out employment and wage.

Argos software evaluation reveals that the Spanish chemist’s signature has been quoted within the worldwide market. In 342 of his research he seems as a researcher on the Russian University of the Friendship of the Peoples. In 113 he seems on the Ecotec University, within the Ecuadorian metropolis of Samborondón. In 18, on the Institute of Applied Chemistry of Changchun, in China. In 11, on the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, in Romania. In 10, on the Saudi University King Saúd. And in lots of research his signature seems in 16 completely different nations.

At the gala on the Kremlin, the grasp of ceremonies introduced to the Spanish chemist as a researcher at Ecuadorian Ecotec. The Russian University of the People’s Friendship printed on February 12 a press launch concerning the tribute, wherein it offered Luque as a sufferer of a dismissal as a result of “openly disseminates a safestation.” The assertion harassed that the collaboration of the Cordoba had made the Russian establishment attain the twenty third place within the rating QS World Cup, one other of the standard ones. The tribute went unnoticed till the journalist Dalmeet Singh Chawla printed the information within the Journal of the American Society of Chemistry a few weeks in the past. That identical firm granted a distinction to Luque in 2018.

The Spanish father of Argos, Antonio José Molina, acknowledges his frustration within the face of impunity that get pleasure from scientists who’ve been hunted doing fraudulent practices. Their software now presents a management panel with which establishments can monitor the “risk activities” of their researchers, such because the institution of latest collaborations with scientists with a murky historical past.

Argos’ evaluation reveals that Luque decreased his suspicious research when the nation offered his case in March 2023. It was probably the most learn information of the yr within the newspaper and the scandal promoted the exclusion for unhealthy practices of two,000 researchers from the listing of very cited scientists. Luque defended one other model. “In this world, should you spotlight you’ll all the time have hatersenvious folks, who’re mediocre, ”he mentioned within the video name from a luxurious resort in Saudi Arabia.“ A friend and my teacher from India told me a story that I like to paraphrase, because it represents me a lot. When the elephant goes for the jungle, there are many dangers: tigers, lions, wild dogs. This type of animals tries to bite the elephant’s legs to load it, but the elephant is wise and follows its way, ”he added.