200 South Korean Professors Charged in Massive Plagiarism Scam - TIME

Some 200 professors from up to 50 universities are implicated.

South Korea is set to indict 200 professors from several of the country’s universities for alleged copyright violations after they republished books by other authors under their own names, the Korea Herald newspaper reported Wednesday.

Professors from 50 universities, as well as four employees of a publishing company, are implicated in the scandal, Korean prosecutors said, with most of them having already confessing their involvement.

The professors’ actions were reportedly done in a bid to boost their academic standing before rehiring-related assessments. The Herald also reported that many of the original authors were also complicit in the scheme for fear of invoking the publishers’ displeasure over future book deals.

If found guilty, the accused will likely face immediate dismissal as well as up to five years in prison and fines equivalent to over $43,000.
[Korea Herald]

Fluid mechanics article retracted with no explanation - Retraction Watch

An article published earlier this year has been retracted from the Journal of Heat Transfer. But the retraction notice gives no information about what was amiss.

The article is entitled “Neural Network Methodology for Modeling Heat Transfer in Wake Flow,” and the retraction notice, in full, reads:

The above referenced paper is being retracted from the Journal of Heat Transfer.

We are unable to find a copy of the article online, despite the fact that the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) recommends leaving retracted articles available online.

We contacted the manager of journals for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the journal’s publisher (who is listed as the author of the retraction), as well as the journal’s editor, but have received no reply. We also reached out to the first and last authors, located at university engineering departments in Turkey and Bahrain, who we were able to identify in a listing on a Chinese library search engine. We’ll circle back if anyone responds with more information.

The article has not been cited.