More than a hundred scientific papers are being pulled due to image reuse concerns, the Wall Street Journal reports.
It notes Elizabeth Bik, a microbiologist and image analyst, identified the set of suspect papers earlier this month. She found that 121 papers from researchers at medical schools and hospitals across China used the same images — often of cell colonies — which suggested to her that the articles were produced by the same "paper mill," as the Journal reported at the time.
The European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences, which published the majority of the suspect papers, tells the Journal that it has asked 19 authors to withdraw their papers. Some researchers said they planned to submit raw data to bolster their studies, but that papers from authors who do not respond will be retracted later this month, the Journal reports.
Bioscience Reports, which published one of the papers, tells the Journal it plans to retract it following a request from its authors. The journals' publishers add at WSJ that they are changing their policies to defend against fraud.