Biology journal pulls 100+ articles and counting from special issues for peer review manipulation
Elsevier’s International Journal of Biological Macromolecules has issued more than 100 retractions and counting for manipulated peer review in guest-edited special issues. The publisher has said one more retraction is coming. Since June the publisher has retracted 120 papers. According to the retraction notices, the journal identified “[s]ystematic, coordinated, and widespread manipulation of the…
International Journal of Biological Macromolecules has issued over 100 retractions due to manipulated peer review in special issues. The publisher expects one more retraction soon. Since June, 120 papers have been retracted. The journal identified "systematic, coordinated, and widespread manipulation" of the peer-review process.
Most retracted papers had Chinese authors and covered topics like cancer cell mutations and chronic conditions. Guest-edited special issues seem prone to manipulation. Hindawi temporarily suspended special issue publishing in 2023 due to manipulated peer review. Springer Nature retracted 34 papers from special issues in 2024 due to "compromised" editorial handling and peer review.
Annals of Operations Research retracted an entire special issue for similar reasons in 2024. The researcher with the most retractions was Junkai Qin, who had five papers retracted. Jin, a researcher from Macau University of Science and Technology and University of Electronic Science and Technology, lost three papers. Li Jin told us he was contacting the journal to inquire about the retraction details and rationale.
Elsevier spokesperson confirmed the retractions are almost complete and tightened checks to detect issues promptly. Fabian Wittmers, a researcher from Oregon State University, flagged over 300 articles, of which one was retracted for peer-review manipulation. Another 11 out of 352 flagged have been retracted for other reasons. The journal doubled its publication volume from 5,000 articles in 2023 to over 9,600 in 2024, and 10,300 in 2025.
The publisher did not comment on the spike in submissions but said research integrity investment is higher than ever. As of 2026, the journal has published over 4,000 articles.
Written by urgent.news from Retraction Watch's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
