The publisher began an investigation into Clinical Hemorheology and Microcirculation last year to address citation concerns, a Sage spokesperson told Retraction Watch. The journal was one of 20 titles that lost their impact factors in Clarivate’s 2025 Journal Citation Reports for excessive self-citation and citation stacking.

Sage retracted the articles due to “concerns around the peer review process underlying these articles and author contributions to these articles, as well as the integrity of the research process,” according to the retraction notice, published November 23, 2025.

The spokesperson would not comment on whether papermill activity was suspected in the articles’ production nor elaborate on the concerns about author contributions. Authors listed on the Clinical Hemorheology and Microcirculation papers are primarily from China, Germany and Iran, and many of the studies share authors and affiliations.

Source https://retractionwatch.com/2026/01/13/sage-journal-retracts-more-than-40-papers-peer-review-authorship-concerns/

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