Japanese institute finds materials researcher with 41 retractions guilty of ‘extensive’ manipulation
An investigation by a national research institute in Japan has concluded one of its former researchers fabricated and falsified figures in seven papers. Two publishers confirmed they are investigating the articles. Joseph Raj Xavier, of Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences in Chennai, India, has lost 10 other papers this year alone, according to … Continue reading Japanese…
The National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) in Tsukuba, Japan, has found former researcher Joseph Raj Xavier guilty of "extensive" manipulation and fabrication in seven of his papers. Xavier, affiliated with the Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences in Chennai, India, has seen 41 of his papers retracted, placing him on the Retraction Watch Leaderboard.
The investigation concluded that Xavier fabricated and falsified figures in scanning electron microscope, atomic force microscope, and scanning electrochemical microscope images, among others. In six of the papers, Xavier performed self-plagiarism. The misconduct occurred in eight of the 23 papers NIMS reviewed, with one paper not containing evidence of misconduct.
Xavier's work has been cited over 4,000 times, with a significant portion of citations being self-citations. NIMS alerted Xavier's current institution, but he did not respond to communications. The investigation committee recommended Xavier and his coauthor, Toshiya Nishimura, withdraw the papers. Both Springer Nature and Elsevier, publishers of some of the affected papers, are aware of the issues and are conducting investigations.
Written by urgent.news from Retraction Watch's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
