Klaus Heese, a professor at Hanyang University in Seoul, noticed a review article he’d worked on had finally been published. But his name wasn’t on it, nor was that of another scientist (Arulmani Manavala) who had also been involved in preparing the manuscript. Instead, two professors, Chellapandian and Kiyun Park, Heese didn’t know had been added as authors on the paper, which appeared in June in Natural Product Communications.

In an email sent October 9, 2025 to a large number of journals and organizations – including Natural Product Communications, Saveetha and Retraction Watch – he laid out what had happened and attached a draft version of the manuscript showing he had revised the text throughout and reformatted the reference list. Manavalan had “extensively revised and prepared” the figures, Heese wrote. 

“I would like to mention that I am not requesting to be added as an author to the published paper. Rather, I recommend that Natural Product Communications retracts this article due to ethical violations,” Heese concluded his email. Laura West, corporate communications and public affairs manager at Sage, which publishes Natural Product Communications, told us the "case is currently under investigation".

Source https://retractionwatch.com/2025/12/22/professor-in-india-adds-coauthors-who-kindly-covered-publication-fee-removes-others/

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