A journal has retracted three papers after an investigation revealed one of the authors falsely claimed he was affiliated with the United States Department of Agriculture.
All three retraction notices, issued February 13, 2025 by the Journal of Environmental Management, state study coauthor Tariq Shah claimed affiliation with the USDA Plant Science Research Unit. “When asked about these issues during an editorial investigation, Shah’s responses caused the editor to further lose confidence in the validity/integrity of the article,” the notices say.
Shah, whose Scopus profile lists him as a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing, told that his listed affiliation with the USDA was an "unintentional mistake". "My mistake was that many people there used the USDA affiliation and I also did the same", Shah told in an email. He also said he provided "each and every document" requested by the editors and called the decision to retract "biased".
