Elsevier journal retracts 100+ papers for authorship issues, editor conflicts of interest

Elsevier, the publisher, has retracted 165 papers from Science of the Total Environment (STOTEN) in 2024, with the majority due to suspicious changes in authorship or conflicts of interest among editors. The journal had been removed from Clarivate’s Web of Science in November due to concerns over article quality. The retractions, mostly occurring in August, affected articles published between 2018 and 2025.

At least 50 retractions were linked to associate editors who had collaborated or had an extensive history of collaboration with the paper’s authors. Changes in authorship without editor approval, such as adding authors during revisions, were also reasons for retraction, indicating potential paper mill activity. Plagiarism and data concerns were other factors leading to retraction.

One researcher, Jörg Rinklebe from the University of Wuppertal, had the most papers retracted—ten in total. Eight of those were due to conflicts with the handling editors, as the handling editor had previously co-published with Rinklebe or other authors. Rinklebe claimed he was unaware of any disqualifying conflicts in his collaborations with the editors and followed the disclosure requirements provided in the submission process. However, several editors have been removed from STOTEN’s website following the retractions.

Elsevier stated that they are strengthening their focus on pre-publication checks and will deploy their post-publication review for other investigations.