In response to concerns raised by several scientists and a prominent Spanish media outlet, the scientific publisher Springer Nature has retracted 75 conference papers connected to computer scientist Juan Manuel Corchado, rector of the University of Salamanca (Usal), who has been accused of dramatically inflating citations to his own work.
The retraction notices—the last of which were published today—note “unusual citation behavior,” among other issues. The papers cite Corchado 1772 times, with a further 559 references to the journal that he edits, the Advances in Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence Journal (ADCAIJ), and another 329 citations to members of Corchado’s research group. Corchado authored 14 of the papers himself, but most included at least one author from Usal.
The pattern of citations in the batch of papers is “very suspicious,” says Ludo Waltman, a bibliometrician at Leiden University who is not involved with the case. The peer review for a conference proceedings is often conducted at arm’s length from its publisher, he says, which can make quality harder to control.
The mass retraction is “unprecedented” in Spain, says University of Granada bibliometrician Alberto Martín Martín, who last month published a report with collaborator Emilio Delgado López-Cózar showing evidence of citation manipulation in conference proceedings that cited Corchado, as well as in short texts uploaded to ResearchGate and Usal’s repository. The pair originally flagged the now-retracted papers to Spanish newspaper El País in May, who subsequently reported them to Springer Nature. The retractions are “a bittersweet outcome,” Martín Martín says, because they confirm inappropriate behavior, but “at least there have been some steps to correct it.”
In the retraction notices, Springer Nature also reports concerns with “editorial handling,” and “undisclosed competing interests.” The publisher found that “direct professional or personal connections [were] responsible for the editorial review of their colleagues’ work,” said Chris Graf, director of research integrity at Springer Nature, in a statement emailed to Science. Many of the papers are published in the proceedings of conferences organized by Corchado’s research group.
Springer Nature did not confirm whether it is investigating additional papers connected with the case, or whether it plans to continue to publish proceedings from these conferences.
In a statement emailed to Science, a member of Corchado’s research group says since June, the group has been working with Springer Nature to correct a number of articles with editorial errors, but that the publisher decided to retract them instead. The papers represent only a very small percentage of Corchado’s and the research group’s work, the statement says, and the accusations are “malicious and solely aimed at discrediting the research group.” Corchado did not directly respond to request for comment.
But the work of Martín Martín and Delgado López-Cózar is “very precise and very exhaustive,” says José María Díaz Mínguez, a geneticist at Usal who served as vice president under the previous rector. Corchado should explain how the flagged papers ended up with the excessive numbers of references to him and his collaborators, Díaz Mínguez says.
Bibliometrician Domingo Docampo, ex-rector of the University of Vigo who was not involved in the investigation, points out that in many of the papers, the references are not related to the text; in a paper titled “Programmed Physical Activity for the Elderly as a Motor of Active Ageing,” for example, some of the 43 citations to Corchado’s work include references to papers on oil spills, Twitter (now X), and oceanography.
The retractions are “terrible” for the university, Díaz Mínguez says, but “I don’t see any consequences in the near future.” Unless Corchado chooses to resign, he says, there is no way for the university to remove him, as rector is the school’s highest office. Although the Spanish Committee on Research Ethics has recommended disciplinary action, this would have to be instigated by Corchado himself.
In a statement published today, the Governing Board of the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities said—without mentioning Corchado or Springer Nature—that recent reports of malpractice and retractions “damage the international reputation of science in our country, and may cast doubt on society’s confidence in the work of science.” The board “appeals to the responsible behavior of the researchers it represents,” the statement continued.
Corchado may lose support as time goes on, Docampo says. Although the retractions reflect badly on Usal, if Corchado is not held accountable, he says, the case will become “a liability for the university system in Spain.”
