Despite criticism from the academic community over the massive profits publishers reap by monopolizing academic publishing, the question of whether universities should be permitted to purchase copyright-infringing products for research also deserves our earnest reflection.
Recently, we obtained a document showing that Wuhan University purchased an 80TB Sci-Hub paper dataset from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2025 for a tender price of 70,000 RMB, via a "single-source" procurement.
Investigation revealed abnormal spectra on this article. In Fig. 21, the red, purple, green and yellow lines show unexpected back tracks. It remain unknown whether back tracks were caused by image processing, or they were resulted from problematic data.
Two articles, [1] and [2], contain 20 identical figures, all of which are reused from a Master's Thesis. Details: www.5gh.org.cn/Report/2026/...
[1] 10.1016/j.cej.2026.173309
[2] 10.1016/j.energy.2025.137818
We previously identified 10 problematic references in a PLoS ONE article, details: www.5gh.org.cn/Report/2026/...
And recently, we found another PLoS ONE article, published on the same day, also has a potential hallucination reference, details: www.5gh.org.cn/Report/2026/...
We identified ten problematic references in a PLoS ONE article, details: www.5gh.org.cn/Report/2026/...
The ethics statements on these two article are found to be questionable. The 5GH Team is seeking a volunteer team to replicate the study. If any group is interested, they are welcome to contact the Team at 5GH[at]5gh[dot]org[dot]cn. Details: www.5gh.org.cn/Report/2026/...
Recently, the number of review articles has increased significantly. We examined four journals: CBM (Construction and Building Materials), CEJ (Chemical Engineering Journal), JCP (Journal of Cleaner Production), and WR (Water Research). The percentage peaked around 2020.
An e-mail accused the ethical statement in an article of being false. Investigations identified two additional articles reporting the same approval number, SQ2018-039-01. However, the participant recruitment described in articles is inconsistent. Details: www.5gh.org.cn/Report/2026/...
Duplicated parts (marked with same colour boxes) are observed on the black line in Figure 13c of this article [1], suggesting the spectrum was manipulated.
[1] 10.1039/d5ma00354g
LIN Qun (林群), an anesthesiologist in China, has published three materials science articles focusing on the photocatalytic properties of nanomaterials, topics that are entirely unrelated to his professional background. But it is not an isolated case. Details: www.5gh.org.cn/Report/2026/...
Some duplicated parts (marked with same colour boxes) are obsere in Figure 6A of the article 10.1016/j.mtbio.2026.102928. However, I am not fimilar with this matter. I am wondering if it is normal?
We found that some journals have published more articles in the first quarter in 2026 than in the full year of 2025. Details: www.5gh.org.cn/Report/2026/...
Materials Today Bio published 1,242 articles in 2025, nearly three times 478 articles published in 2024. An even higher number is expected this year. During first three months of 2026 alone, journal has already published 437 articles.
Fuel has issued 2,996 articles during the first three months of this year. This number exceeds the total of 2,841 articles published throughout 2025. While this trend does not necessarily indicate any irregularities by the journal, it's worth noting this unusual pattern.
Fuel has issued 2,996 articles during the first three months of this year. This number exceeds the total of 2,841 articles published throughout 2025. While this trend does not necessarily indicate any irregularities by the journal, it's worth noting this unusual pattern.
These two articles by WU Ran (East China Normal University and Second Military Medical University) share the same ethical approval from Second Military Medical University with the approval No. of 20170305, however the recruitment described in them are inconsistent with each other
26 articles were produced in a mass "assembly-line" fashion by an author group from Southwest University, China, between 2021 and 2025. Details: www.5gh.org.cn/Report/2026/...
😱
ha ha ha ha~~~
Some abnormal data was identified on the article (10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1626476).
Nice step
International Journal of Coal Geology contributes high proportions of the citations to the Editor-in-Chief, details: www.5gh.org.cn/Report/2026/...
17.5% Citations to DAI Shifeng (代世峰), with the China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), came from "International Journal of Coal Geology", the journal he served as the Editor-in-Chief. Detials: www.5gh.org.cn/Report/2026/...
Our investigation (www.5gh.org.cn/Report/2026/...) revealed that DAI Shifeng, as a guest editor, received a large number of citations via the topical collection published in a MDPI journal. Further investigations show that similar citation patterns. Details: www.5gh.org.cn/Report/2026/...
A topical collection at the MDPI title "Minerals" is found to contain an excessive number of citations to the guest editor, DAI Shifeng (代世峰) from the China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing). Details: www.5gh.org.cn/Report/2026/...
We received a tip-off alleging that T J LEE (李鼎烈) from the Macau University of Science and Technology may be exploiting his position as the EiC of "The International Journal of Tourism Research" to inflate his citations. Here are some detailed data: www.5gh.org.cn/Report/2026/...
The anonymous Reviewer 2 for this article [1] provided the authors with three irrelevant references, without offering any specific comments or feedback on the content of the article itself.
[1] 10.1371/journal.pone.0275472
A recent investigation uncovered the questionable editorial and review practices by HUANG Difang (黄棣芳) on PLoS ONE and other journals. Details: www.5gh.org.cn/Report/2026/...
The review report submitted by S Chattopadhyay for the PLOS Digital Health article [1] contains notable issues. Rather than providing any specific comments on article [1], Chattopadhyay merely suggested three references for the authors to cite.
[1] 10.1371/journal.pdig.0000921