In May 2025, Tennessee authorities were preparing to arrest a university math professor for allegedly soliciting university donations from his students and pocketing the money. As state investigators closed in, the professor, Don Hong, tried to get revenge against a student who reported him by accusing her of research misconduct and telling a journal to retract a study she recently authored, according to an investigative report from the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury. When a grand jury indicted Hong on May 5, 2025, for theft and forgery, it tacked on a retaliation charge for his actions against the student.
But later that month, the International Journal of Computer Mathematics (IJCM) retracted a paper about mortgage rates by Ph.D. student Danlei Zhu, an advisee of Hong’s, and four others in the department of mathematical science at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) in Murfreesboro. According to the retraction notice, “significant concerns” were raised about the study’s methodology following publication, and an independent external review determined the methodology and statistical analysis “were incorrect” and the conclusions “unreliable.” Whether the IJCM paper is the same article referenced in the state’s investigative report is unclear.