An Elsevier energy-technology journal has retracted six papers from 2022 whose authors changed without editorial approval during revision of the manuscripts. The authors also provided fictitious email addresses during the submission process, but changed them after the papers were accepted, according to retraction notices in the February issue of Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments. While the issues don’t necessarily indicate foul play, authorship changes and the use of non-institutional email addresses can be signs of paper-mill involvement.

Editors reached out to the authors – nearly all of whom were based in the Middle East or China – using the emails provided in the papers. Only Mohammed Nasser Ajour of King Abdulaziz University, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, responded. The retraction notice for Ajour’s paper states two new authors from the researcher’s institution “were added to the revised paper without explanation and without the explicit approval by the journal editor.” “Overall, the editors have determined that the findings of the manuscript cannot be relied upon and that the article needs to be retracted,” they conclude.

Source https://retractionwatch.com/2026/03/18/technology-journal-pulls-papers-for-unauthorized-author-changes-fictitious-emails/

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