U.S. university asks journal to remove professor’s name from paper with coauthor in China

A physics journal, Foundations of Physics, removed the name of a professor from an article after his university requested it. The professor, Emanuele Zappala, is an applied mathematician at Idaho State University. The journal, which is published by Springer Nature, consulted with Zappala before making the decision. The reason for the removal is that one of Zappala's coauthors, Antonino Marciano, works at Fudan University in China.

Fudan was recently added to the U.S. Department of Defense's Section 1286 List, which flags institutions that pose a threat to national security. The government warns that collaborating with such an institution could pose a compliance risk and negatively impact eligibility for federal funding. Idaho State University's vice president for research & economic development, Martin Blair, formally requested the journal's action, citing the "potential national security implications" of Zappala's research, which has ties to artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

Zappala has coauthored seven papers with Marciano and has one additional preprint with him. He did not respond to a request for comment. Blair has asked Zappala's department chair and college dean to give him credit for this work in his next promotion and tenure review. The journal editor, Carlo Rovelli, expressed his disapproval of the university's decision, stating that such actions contribute to the decay of US scientific and moral values.