The American Society For Testing And Materials (ASTM) International started an investigation into its Journal of Testing and Evaluation after an ASTM vendor noticed some “irregular patterns in the peer review” in a special issue. The papers were published between 2019 and 2024 in the journal, which began publishing in 1973, according to its website. The journal joins 75 others with at least 145 retractions.
The mass retraction includes 48 papers in its “Special Issue on Testing and Evaluation of Internet of Things for Smart City” and another 43 articles in the “Special Issue on Advanced Internet of Things for Smart City (Part 2)”. In the first batch of 25 retracted papers, seven affiliations show up more than once, including Vellore Institute of Technology University in India, which is listed 23 times among the retracted papers. These retractions spotlight an ongoing pattern of peer review abuse within special sections.
