An Elsevier computing journal has retracted 13 papers, including four co-authored by a former co-editor-in-chief, following an independent investigation into suspicious authorship changes, overexpanded reference lists, and editorial conflicts of interest.
Thirteen papers published in Computers in Biology and Medicine between 2019 and 2023 have been pulled by the Elsevier publication due to irregular citations and questionable alterations to author lists, according to reporting by Retraction Watch. Ten of the retraction notices state that an impartial field expert acting in the role of an independent Publishing Ethics advisor
requested the removals.
Former Co-Editor-In-Chief Targeted in Retraction Batch
Huiling Chen, a computer science researcher at Wenzhou University in China who served as co-editor-in-chief of the journal from 2021 to 2024, was listed as an author on four of the retracted articles. One of those papers, a 2021 study on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease imaging, had accumulated 107 citations on Clarivate’s Web of Science before its retraction.
Commenters on the post-publication peer-review platform PubPeer previously criticized the citation practices within Chen’s work. Frequent commenter Hoya camphorifolia pointed out in October 2024 that the papers contained sentences serving as justifications for strings of unrelated, transactional citations.
I do not dispute that citation and authorship concerns can be serious and require an appropriate response,
Chen told Retraction Watch, though he questioned the proportionality of the journal’s actions. He explained that many references were expanded during manuscript revisions at the request of peer reviewers asking for additional context. In retrospect, the reference lists became overexpanded, and some citations were weakly relevant, redundant, or unnecessary,
he added.
Unapproved Author Additions and Editorial Conflicts
Beyond citation padding, the journal’s investigation uncovered administrative irregularities involving author lists. For an August 2021 article about lupus co-authored by Chen, five authors were added and one was removed during the editorial process. Chen stated that while those changes were noted in revision cover letters, the team never sought explicit journal approval. Providing an explanation is not the same as obtaining approval, and I recognize that distinction,
he said.
Another retraction notice revealed a conflict of interest involving Chen himself. The notice states that he handled the peer-review process for a fifth manuscript despite a documented history of academic collaboration and co-publication with one of the paper’s authors.
Elsevier guidelines state editors must not be involved in decisions about papers which they have written themselves or have been written by family members or colleagues.
While the publisher’s guidance for reviewers gives an example of a conflict of interest as collaborations between the reviewer and author(s) in the previous three years,
a representative for Elsevier declined to comment on whether the journal banned peer reviewers or made any changes to the editorial process.
Global Co-Authors Face Scrutiny
The batch of retracted papers extends beyond Chen, implicating several other international researchers who collaborated on the work. Ali Asghar Heidari and Hamza Turabieh joined Chen as co-authors on all four of his retracted papers. Majdi Mafarja of Birzeit University in Palestine co-authored three of the retracted titles.
Attempts to reach the co-authors yielded limited responses. Emails sent to Heidari at addresses associated with the University of Tehran and the National University of Singapore bounced back, and other messages went unanswered. Turabieh, a data science researcher at the University of Missouri-Columbia who has lost six other papers according to the Retraction Watch Database, did not respond to requests for comment, nor did Mafarja.
The action follows a wider review of publishing integrity across Elsevier titles. In September, another Elsevier publication, Science of the Total Environment, retracted more than 100 papers, many for editorial conflicts of interest.