Dear All,
Strange times. People are getting promotion for PDB deposit or even by
depositing 'raw' data to proteindiffraction.org without depositing
structure to PDB. Some promotion bodies are convinced that PDB deposit
is a peer review publication.
Wladek
On 6/4/2026 5:58 AM, Clemens Vonrhein wrote:
Dear all,
we'll probably see more of that ... a couple of years ago I stumbled
upon
https://doi.org/10.47191/ijmra/v7-i06-26
which is basically a copy of
https://dx.doi.org/10.1107/S0907444911007773
As far as I remember, Acta D editorial board tried to contact that
journal ... but as you can see, the fake article is still here.
Maybe we need to see it as "Imitation Is the Sincerest Form of
Flattery"? Or it is the unavoidable deluge of spam powerful scraping
and rewriting tools can now create within a single mouse click.
Cheers
Clemens
On Wed, Jun 03, 2026 at 12:11:18PM +0200, Marian Oliva wrote:
Dear CCP4 colleagues,
I would like to bring to your attention a very unusual and concerning case of
apparent plagiarism and to seek advice from the community on how best to
proceed.
Recently, we discovered that an article we originally published in 2020 in the
Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.0c00855) appears to have
been republished in the Journal of Research in Health Sciences under a different
title and with a completely different list of authors (DOI:
10.31472/JRHS.2024.2.3<https://jrhsjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/Vol16I2-3.pdf>)
in 2024 (https://jrhsjournal.com/volume-16-issue-2-2024/)
What is particularly striking is that the overlap is not limited to concepts,
text fragments, or results. The manuscript appears to reproduce, essentially
verbatim the main text, paragraph by paragraph; the figures, reproduced
identically; the figure legends; the experimental descriptions; the
acknowledgements section and; even the name of the original corresponding
author remains present in the text.
In other words, apart from the title and author list, the article appears to be
an exact copy of the original publication.
We have already contacted the Editor of the Journal of Research in Health
Sciences and provided documentation of the overlap. However, we have not yet
received a response.
In an attempt to understand what may have happened, I searched for the listed
authors. Most appear to have ResearchGate profiles and publication records.
Interestingly, the allegedly plagiarized paper does not appear among their
listed publications, and none of the authors seem to have a research background
related to the scientific field of the original work. This raises the
possibility that the listed authors may themselves be unaware of the
publication.
The journal itself appears to be indexed in Medline and has been present in
PubMed for several years, making the situation even more surprising.
I would therefore be grateful for any advice from colleagues who may have
encountered similar situations. In particular:
- What additional steps would you recommend beyond contacting the journal
editor? Should the matter be reported to PubMed/Medline or other indexing
services at this stage?
- Are there organizations or formal procedures that have proven effective in
obtaining investigations and retractions in comparable cases?
Any guidance or shared experiences would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you very much for your time and advice.
Best regards,
Marian
Marian Oliva
Unit for Biological, Immunological, and Chemical Drug Development
Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas Margarita Salas
CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTÍFICAS
+34 918669485
[email protected]
C/ Ramiro de Maeztu, 9. 28040-Madrid
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