If a plagiarized paper by an author who claims not to have written it disappears from a journal’s website without notice, did the paper even exist? This is not just a philosophical question for researchers whose published papers have been published in other journals under someone else’s name.

Researcher while enrolled in master’s program in 2011 Silvia de Cesare Published a paper in philosophy of implication Analyzes the 20th century philosopher’s skepticism towards the theory of evolution, even though the theory is consistent with his philosophical views. Currently holding dual doctorates in ecology and philosophy, de Cesare is a postdoctoral fellow at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, where he studies the relationship between evolutionary theory and the concept of progress.

Last June, De Cesare learned that someone had published a version of her article in a magazine. International Journal of Applied Scientific Research (IJASRThe paper is a nearly verbatim copy of De Cesare’s article, with the exception of a few omitted footnotes, and Marceline Runanga Mukunda of the University of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is listed as the sole author. However, Mukunda denied publishing the paper and said he had been hacked or possibly robbed to explain how his name appeared in the paper.

In a communication seen by Retraction Watch, De Cesare contacted the magazine’s editor. IJASR Report the plagiarism of her work and request a retraction of the offending paper. editing assistant IJASR In response, the journal said it would consider the issue and remove the paper if the authors did not provide a satisfactory response.

After five months without hearing from the publisher, De Cesare followed up again, and within two weeks the plagiarized paper was removed from the journal’s database. The paper was removed “due to significant plagiarism.” IJASR An editorial assistant told me. PDF The paper itself was still available online until mid-January, when we contacted IJASR for comment on the matter.

“Removing the paper without a retraction notice (and official excuse) seems to me to be an insufficient response to patent and serious plagiarism cases like this,” De Cesare said. According to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Guidelines for Plagiarism in Published PapersPublishers are required to notify readers of the consequences of any action resulting from a plagiarism investigation, usually through a notice of correction or retraction.

IJASR We do not post withdrawal notices on our website. This journal is not indexed in Scopus or Clarivate’s Web of Science. IJASR’s Publishing ethics page It includes a section that calls itself “Journal Sosioteknologi” and highlights important parts of the text. Journal policy page of the magazine of that name.

Mukunda, now an associate professor at the Bukavu Institute for Advanced Medical Technology in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said he did not submit a paper. “I have never published a paper in IJARS. [sic] I consider this to be predatory,” he said.

Contains 2 pieces of paper IJASR Mukunda is listed as an author affiliated with the University of Kinshasa, but no contact information is provided. We contacted Mr. Mukunda through the email address provided by his current university. This address matches the email address of the associated 2024 paper. his doctoral work at the University of Kinshasa.

“In 2018, my contact details and research data were hacked,” Mukunda said. When asked to elaborate, he described an incident in which the vandalism and theft were followed by threatening phone calls. He declined to provide any correspondence, investigative reports or other evidence to support either story.

We informed IJASR of Mukunda’s claim that he has not published any publications. “We are currently investigating the filing records and identification process to determine how this happened and whether this is a case of identity theft or predatory filing.” IJASR An editorial assistant told me. IJASR We have not responded to follow-up emails regarding the progress or results of this investigation.

plagiarism of published papers is common problems In academic publishing. Just recently, I saw a retraction against an author who copied from: colleague, student essay, rejectedpaper, Conference abstracts, preprint paperseven our past Publications.

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