A physicist in India, H.C. Manjunatha, has accumulated three retractions and 13 expressions of concern for papers on superheavy elements after three researchers in the field began to flag issues with his work. David Boilley, a physicist at the University of Caen Normandy and researcher at GANIL, first noticed issues with papers by Manjunatha and colleagues in 2019. After identifying issues with the papers, Boilley told us he contacted publishers, including Springer Nature, in 2024 with concerns.

The three retracted papers originally appeared in Springer Nature’s The European Physical Journal A in 2017. The Brazilian Journal of Physics, also published by Springer Nature, issued expressions of concern for 13 of the papers at the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026 after Boilley and his team reached out with their findings.

Manjunatha told that he disagreed with the retractions, and said: “sorry to say that it was not manipulated data.” He said the editor told him equations missing from the theory portion of the papers were “too lengthy to include in the erratum,” leading to the retraction of the three papers.


Source https://retractionwatch.com/2026/03/23/physicists-flag-over-50-papers-on-superheavy-elements-leading-to-3-retractions/

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