Muhammad Shahbaz

List of Predatory Editors

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Predatory editors are individuals or entities that exploit the academic publishing process for financial or professional gain, typically through deceptive practices that compromise scholarly integrity.

Following is the list of editors of journals, books or book series who may have been involved in scientific misconduct. They are innocent unless proven guilty 🙂

Jiří Jaromír Klemeš

Jiří Jaromír Klemeš (1945–2023) was a prominent academic at the Brno University of Technology, widely recognized for his work in process integration and sustainable development. However, his posthumous legacy has become a focal point for large-scale academic integrity investigations. He was co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Cleaner Production.

• Posthumous Publishing Scandal: Following his death in January 2023, at least 49 papers were published listing him as a co-author. Many were submitted months after his passing with false declarations that he had approved the final manuscripts, suggesting his name was used as a “brand” by a network to guarantee acceptance.

• Editorial Misconduct: He was a central figure in the “editorial capture” of the Journal of Cleaner Production (JCP). Evidence, including errata, confirmed cases where he acted as both a co-author and the handling editor for the same manuscript, creating a blatant conflict of interest.

• Senior Network Hub: Alongside Muhammad Shahbaz and Charbel Jabbour, Klemeš was a senior leader of a major “citation ring.” This network used his prestige and editorial power to fast-track papers and systematically cross-cite each other to inflate bibliometric metrics.

• PRES Conference Pipeline: He founded the PRES conference series, which served as a primary pipeline for fast-tracking papers into high-impact journals, often bypassing rigorous independent peer review.

• Citation Stacking: Many of his most-cited works have been flagged for “citation stacking,” where large blocks of irrelevant references were added to papers solely to boost the h-indices of the network members.

• Ongoing Scrutiny: His posthumous publications and joint works are currently subject to widespread “Expressions of Concern” and retractions as journals attempt to correct the record of his late-career output.

Charbel Jose Chiappetta Jabbour

Charbel Jose Chiappetta Jabbour is a prominent scholar in Green Human Resource Management and Sustainable Supply Chain Management, currently a Distinguished Professor at NEOMA Business School. Despite his high bibliometric standing, he is frequently identified as a senior member of the collaborative network involving Muhammad Shahbaz and Jiří Jaromír Klemeš.

• Current HCR Status: Unlike his frequent collaborator Shahbaz, Jabbour remains on the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers list as of 2025/2026, though his work remains a primary subject of investigation for bibliometric manipulation.

• Senior Network Role: He acts as a key bridge between management theory and the technical sustainability research favored by the “ring,” helping to expand the network’s influence into European and Brazilian academic institutions.

• Citation Padding Allegations: Numerous publications co-authored by Jabbour have been flagged on PubPeer for containing “citation stacks”—blocks of references that appear disconnected from the text and serve primarily to inflate the metrics of his associates.

• Editorial Influence: He has held influential editorial and guest editorial positions in “hub” journals like the Journal of Cleaner Production, which investigators suggest allowed for the fast-tracking of papers within the network.

• Collaboration Scrutiny: His extensive joint work with Jiří Jaromír Klemeš has come under review following the exposure of the latter’s posthumous publishing and self-handling of manuscripts to determine the extent of bypassed peer-review protocols.

• Template-Driven Prolificity: Like other members of the group, Jabbour’s massive output is often characterized by “template” research, where similar management models are applied to different developing regions to maintain an extreme rate of publication.

• Co-authors: He has co-edited a book (Sustainable Production and Consumption Systems) with the disgraced author Syed Abdul Rehman Khan, whose several papers and one book (Strategic Supply Chain Management) has been retracted by the publishers. The book has been published in the Springer Book Series whose editor is S. A. R. Khan as of Feb 2026.

Collaborators:

  • Muhammad Shahbaz
    • Latan et al. (2018)
  • Syed Abdul Rehman Khan
    • Sustainable Production and Consumption Systems (Springer)

References:

Latan et al. (2018): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.01.106

Jabbour, C. J. C., & Khan, S. A. R. (2021). Sustainable Production and Consumption Systems. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4760-4

Muhammad Shahbaz

Muhammad Shahbaz (The Ringleader) is a highly prolific researcher in the fields of Energy Economics, Environmental Science, Green Economy, and Applied Econometrics. Despite having no major scientific breakthrough to his name, he has surpassed several Nobel Laureates on certain scientific ranking metrics. He has held various academic positions, most recently at the Beijing Institute of Technology, and was once ranked among the top 1% of the world’s most-cited researchers.

• Exclusion from Clarivate HCR: Formerly a staple on the Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) list, Shahbaz was removed in recent years. Clarivate’s qualitative filters identified “anomalous citation patterns,” indicating that his high citation count was likely the result of manipulation rather than genuine impact.

• Citation Rings and Stacking: Investigations on platforms like PubPeer have mapped out a “citation ring” where Shahbaz, alongside collaborators, systematically cited each other’s work to artificially inflate their h-indices and the Impact Factors of specific journals.

• Hyper-Prolificity and Paper Mills: Shahbaz has published at a rate (often dozens of papers per year) that academic watchdogs consider statistically impossible for original, high-quality research. This has led to allegations of involvement in “paper mills” or “ghost-writing” businesses, where research is mass-produced using repetitive templates.

• Journal Suppression: His excessive publishing and citation practices were central to the “Resources Policy” scandal, where the journal was suppressed by Clarivate for anomalous citation patterns linked directly to his network.

• Editorial Capture: He utilized editorial and guest editorial roles to fast-track submissions from his network, often bypassing rigorous peer review in journals like Environmental Science and Pollution Research (ESPR), Resources Policy, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, and Journal of Cleaner Production. For instance, his Special Issue at Resources Policy contains submissions by his accomplices including Khalid Zaman (Anser et al., 2022), an author with at least 20 retractions (Retraction Watch, 2016).

• Conflict of Interest: PubPeer contains several posts that highlight conflict of interest associated with his publications, such as the one involving Shahbaz and N. Apergis (PubPeer, 6FC526A792DA006697A42D23A8E254)

While he remains an active author, his work is now a primary case study for academic integrity investigators tracking the rise of citation-based misconduct in global academia. To create confusion and mislead both the audience and employers, he maintains multiple accounts on Scopus, ORCID and Google Scholar, each tied to a different affiliation. If he were to merge all his accounts into a single unified profile, his research productivity (number of papers published per month), and his citation counts could well surpass even the most influential scientists on Earth. He publishes dozens of papers per year; for example, he published at least 62 papers in 2021, 49 in 2020, 50 in 2019, and 56 in 2018! Also, he is on the payroll of multiple institutions simultaneously. Thus, despite having not a single work with more than 2000 citations, it is no wonder that he currently occupies 4th place on the Top Economists ranking (as of June 2026), while Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Laureate in Economics, ranks only 9th.

Affiliations:

  • VIZJA University (University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw): Warsaw, PL
    • 2024-10 to present: Affiliated Professor
  • Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, UK.
    • 2019: Senior Visiting Research Fellow
  • Beijing Institute of Technology: Beijing, CN
    • 2019-06-24 to present: Professor
  • Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
    • 2017: Research Fellowship
  • Montpellier Business School: Montpellier, Occitanie, FR:
    • 2016: Research Fellowship.
  • IPAG Business School 184 Boulevard Saint-Germain, 75006 Paris, France
  • Department of Economics and Finance, College of Business Administration, Gulf University of Science and Technology, Kuwait
  • Institute of Business Research, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam

Collaborators and accomplicies:

He is a close associate of Khalid Zaman, whose at least 20 research papers were retracted from journals where Shahbaz served as editor. Although the publisher never discloses the handling editors’ names, and these are not listed on the published articles, it is highly likely that Shahbaz handled many of those manuscripts. Both Shahbaz and Zaman, as well as their other accomplices, Hashim Zameer and Muhammad Mohsin, have collaborated with Xuan Vinh Vo (Shahbaz et al., 2022/2020; Mohsin et al., 2021; Bashir et al., 2021; Ahmed et al., 2021; Anser et al., 2020b; Zameer et al., 2020a). Zaman’s paper in Resource Policy was published in the special issue being run by Shahbaz and his another accomplice Muhammad Ali Nasir (Anser et al., 2020b). Muhammad Mohsin’s several papers have been retracted recently, and he was also the reviewer on some questionable studied (see: Retraction Watch, 2025). K. Zaman has collaborated with M. Shahbaz in at least one work (Zaman et al., 2016). X. V. Vo’s several papers have also been retracted (Musah et al., 2021).

Yu Hao works with Shahbaz at BIT. Y. Hao was the editor of the collection, where M. Mohsin and Abdul Rehman acted as the reviewers of a paper that was later retracted (Fatima et al., 2022). Y. Hao has collaborated with both M. Mohsin and Muhammad Irfan (Irfan et al., 2022). Irfan has been flagged for unethical behavior regarding his professional identity. He operates a YouTube channel (Dr. Max English) where he provides healthcare and medical advice while presenting himself as a “physician.”

Abdul Rehman has collaborated with several accomplices of Shahbaz including M. Mohsin (Chandio et al., 2020), M. Irfan (Dagar et al., 2022), I. Ozturk (Rehman et al., 2022), Rafael Alvarado, Cem Işık, and Serdar Ongan. A. Rehman published 200+ papers between 2014 and 2016, i.e., 67–70 papers per year (approximately one paper every 5–6 days). At least 3 of these papers have been retracted – all from the 29th volume of Environmental Science and Pollution Research. These three papers were handled by Ilhan Ozturk, Nicholas Apergis and Roula Inglesi-Lotz.

Another close accomplice of Shahbaz is Nicholas Apergis. Together they, along with Ilhan Ozturk and Roula Inglesi-Lotz, were serving at the editorial board of Environmental Science and Pollution Research (ESPR). Also, together they guest edited Special Issues at various journals, such as Energy Economics (Elsevier). Several manuscripts of the authors close to Shahbaz were handled by N. Apergis at ESPR (see: Zameer et al., 2020b; Ding et al., 2022). Both of them have been removed from the editorial board of the ESPR recently, at a time when ESPR was declared “on-hold” by Web of Science. The list of ‘persons of concern’ who have collaborated with Muhammad Shahbaz several times is given below:

  • Malin Song
    • Associate Editor, Energy Economics (Elsevier)
    • Collaborated with Shahbaz on multiple papers.
  • Nicholas Apergis
    • Associate Editor, Energy Economics (Elsevier)
    • He and Shahabz were editors at Environmental Science and Pollution Research, when the journal was placed on “on-hold” by Web of Science.
  • Xuan Vinh Vo
    • Collaborated with M. Shahbaz, J. A. Batten, and others.
  • J. A. Batten
    • Collaborated with X. V. Vo on multiple paper.
    • Senior Editor, Emerging Markets Review (Elsevier)
    • Co-editor, Finance Research Letters (Elsevier)
    • Advisory Editor, Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money (Elsevier)
  • Avik Sinha
    • Sinha has collaborated with M. Shahbaz, I. Ozturk, and Sunil Tiwari (a collaborator of N. Apergis).
    • He is listed as a co-author on a paper with conflict of interest (PubPeer, 6FC526A792DA006697A42D23A8E254)
  • Aviral Kumar Tiwari
    • Editor-in-chief, Journal of Economic and Financial Modelling (by a predatory publisher: Aves Publishers)
    • Co-Editor-in-Chief, IIMBG Journal of Sustainable Business and Innovation (Emerald)
    • Associate Editor, Energy Economics (Elsevier)
    • Associate Editor, Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences (Emerald)
  • Cem Işık
    • A collaborator of Shahbaz on multiple papers [see: Shahbaz et al., 2025)
    • Undisclosed conflict of interest: A case has been reported at PubPeer where he was listed as co-author on a paper reviewed by his accomplice Magdalena Radulescu (PubPeer, A07507B3B972D2A8AF6158234EB538)
    • Listed on a paper with undisclosed conflict of interest (PubPeer, DB0B4BC1DBEB1099A1760FA9100AA7)
    • Listed on a paper with undisclosed conflict of interest (PubPeer, C72D5B3EAFAC8695E36554AC2B5A39)
    • Listed on a retracted paper with undisclosed conflict of interest (PubPeer, C4E349B3C0DA5B657C1AE351771426). It was edited by Muhammad Mohsin.
    • Listed on a retracted paper with conflict of interest (PubPeer, 6394AEA709E5043763916708FA33F4). It was edited by Yu Hao, and Muhammad Mohsin and Abdul Rehman were the reviewers.
  • Roula Inglesi-Lotz
    • Associate Editor, Energy Economics (Elsevier)
  • Syed Jawad Hussain Shahzad
    • Shahzad has extensively collaborated with Shahbaz and his accomplices.
    • Associate Editor, Energy Economics (Elsevier)
  • Magdalena Radulescu
    • PubPeer, A07507B3B972D2A8AF6158234EB538
    • PubPeer, FC35085551B5F67C95B4A69E8CCFF8
  • Hashim Zameer
    • Co-authored several papers with Shahbaz and his accomplices.
    • Guest Editor of multiple Special Issues with Shahbaz and his accomplices.
  • Muhammad Shujaat Mubarik
    • Guest Editor multiple Special Issues with Shahbaz and his accomplices.
  • Rangan Gupta
    • A close associate of A. K. Tiwari. Gupta has collaborated with both Tiwari and Shahbaz (in Resources Policy).
    • Associate Editor, Energy Economics (Elsevier)
  • Abdul Rehman
    • At least 3 retractions.
    • Listed on a paper with undisclosed conflict of interest (PubPeer, DB0B4BC1DBEB1099A1760FA9100AA7)
    • Listed on a paper with undisclosed conflict of interest (PubPeer, C72D5B3EAFAC8695E36554AC2B5A39)
  • Ilhan Ozturk
    • Was the handling editor of a paper with undisclosed conflict of interest (PubPeer, C72D5B3EAFAC8695E36554AC2B5A39)
    • Editor (removed), Environmental Science and Pollution Research (Springer)
  • Sandrine Kablan
  • Muhammad Ali Nasir
    • Both Nasir and Shahbaz were editors at Journal of Environmental Management (Elsevier).
  • Eyup Dogan
    • Conflict of interest: PubPeer (DB0B4BC1DBEB1099A1760FA9100AA7)
    • Associate Editor – Resources Policy (Elsevier); “on-hold” by Web of Science
  • Daniel Balsalobre-Lorente
  • Gagan Deep Sharma
  • Mehmet Akif Destek
    • He is listed as a co-author on a paper with undisclosed conflict of interest (PubPeer, 6FC526A792DA006697A42D23A8E254)
  • Humaira Yasmeen
  • Umit Bulut
    • Listed on a paper with undisclosed conflict of interest (PubPeer, DB0B4BC1DBEB1099A1760FA9100AA7)
  • Sahir Karakaya
    • Listed on a paper with undisclosed conflict of interest (PubPeer, DB0B4BC1DBEB1099A1760FA9100AA7)
  • Shawkat M. Hammoudeh
    • He is listed as a co-author on a paper with undisclosed conflict of interest (PubPeer, 6FC526A792DA006697A42D23A8E254)
    • Associate Editor, Energy Economics (EE) (Elsevier)
    • Section Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Risk and Financial Management (JRFM) (MDPI)
    • Section Editor, Emerging Markets Review (EMR) (Elsevier)
    • Subject Editor (removed), Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions & Money (Elsevier)
    • It should be noted that his name appears at EMR as “M. Hammoudeh”, while at EE and JRFM as “Shawkat Hammoudeh”
  • Mantu Kumar Mahalik
  • Zhilun Jiao
  • Ilyas Okumus
    • He is listed as a co-author on a paper with undisclosed conflict of interest (PubPeer, 6FC526A792DA006697A42D23A8E254)
  • Syed Jawad Hussain Shahzad
  • Kangyin Dong
  • Naceur Khraief
  • Samia Nasreen
  • Sakiru Adebola Solarin
  • Gazi Salah Uddin
  • Phouphet Kyophilavong
  • Muhammad Shafiullah
  • Ugur Korkut Pata
  • Amine Lahiani
  • Muhammad Irfan
    • Several retractions.
    • Listed on a paper with undisclosed conflict of interest (PubPeer, DB0B4BC1DBEB1099A1760FA9100AA7)
  • Khalid Ahmed
  • Serdar Ongan
    • Listed on a paper with undisclosed conflict of interest (PubPeer, DB0B4BC1DBEB1099A1760FA9100AA7)
  • Zahid Yousaf
  • Muhammad Wasif Zafar
  • Rafael Alvarado
    • Listed on a paper with conflict of interest (PubPeer, DB0B4BC1DBEB1099A1760FA9100AA7)
    • Listed on a retracted paper with conflict of interest (PubPeer, C4E349B3C0DA5B657C1AE351771426). It was edited by Muhammad Mohsin.
  • Nanthakumar Loganathan
  • Munir Ahmad
    • Listed on a paper with conflict of interest (PubPeer, DB0B4BC1DBEB1099A1760FA9100AA7)
    • Listed on a retracted paper with conflict of interest (PubPeer, C4E349B3C0DA5B657C1AE351771426). It was edited by Muhammad Mohsin.
    • Listed on a retracted paper with conflict of interest (PubPeer, 6394AEA709E5043763916708FA33F4). It was edited by Yu Hao, and Muhammad Mohsin and Abdul Rehman were the reviewers.
  • Ana Beatriz Lopes de Sousa Jabbour
  • Charbel Jose Chiappetta Jabbour

Journals where Muhammad Shahbaz has edited regular or special issues:

  • Cleaner and Responsible Consumption – Elsevier
    • Special issue: Cleaner production, Climate change, environmental risk and ESG goals. Guest Editors: Muhammad Shahbaz, Gagan Deep Sharma, Jayesh Patel, Yupal Shukla
  • Emerging Markets Review – Elsevier
    • Subject Editor
  • Environmental Science and Pollution Research (ESPR) – Springer
    • Editor (removed)
    • “On-hold” by Web of Science
    • The journal has acknowledged that it was “targeted by paper mills and citation cartels.” and “have made drastic changes to the board of editors.” However, it never disclosed the names of the culprits in its editorial boards.
    • see Musah et al. (2021). Retracted. Handled by N. Apergis. Both co-author (X. V. Vo) and handling editor are the collaborators of M. Shahbaz.
  • Energy Economics – Elsevier
    • Shahbaz’s friend Wang et al. (2025)’s paper, guest edited by Shahbaz and Apergis, was retracted.
  • Energy Policy – Elsevier
  • Energy & Environment – SAGE
    • Special Issue: Economic and Environmental Aspects of Renewable Energy Sources (2020). Edited by: Dr. Eyup Dogan, Abdullah Gul University, Turkey (Managing GE); Dr. Muhammad Shahbaz, Beijing Institute of Technology, China; Dr. Roula Inglesi‑Lotz, University of Pretoria, South Africa; Dr. Jungho Baek, University of Alaska, USA; Dr. Lihua Yang, Peking University, China
  • Journal of Environmental Management
    • Subject Editor
  • Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions & Money
    • Subject Editor
  • Resources Policy – Elsevier
    • Associate Editor
    • “On-hold” by Web of Science
    • Shahbaz’s collaborator Zaman’s paper (Anser et al., 2020b) was guest edited by Shahbaz and M. A. Nasir
    • Shahbaz and Gagan Deep Sharma co-authored a paper in the Special Issue, edited by Muhammad Mohsin (Sharma et al., 2022). Since Shahbaz was an editor of the journal at that time, he may have facilitated Mohsin’s attempt to launch the Special Issue.
  • Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews – Elsevier
  • Technological Forecasting and Social Change – Elsevier
    • Subject Editor
  • Journal of Cleaner Production – Elsevier

Other journals

Following are the journals where Shahbaz and his accomplices frequently published, and some of the papers were later retracted. These journals also often cited the works by Shahbaz and his accomplicies. We have strong doubts that Shahbaz or some senior member(s) of his gang are strongly connected with these journals.

  • Environmental Research – Elsevier.
    • Anser et al. (2020a): Received 6 April 2020; Received in revised form 1 May 2020; Accepted 8 May 2020. It was accepted in almost ONE MONTH! It was retracted for an unauthorised authorship change during the revision.
  • Energy Sources, Part B: Economics, Planning and Policy
    • Among 20 Top Authors of the journal, at least 7 are connected with the cartel of Shahbaz. These 7 individuals are: M. Shahbaz, Ilhan Öztürk, Munir Ahmad, Eyüp Dogan, Muntasir Murshed, Abdul Rehman and Cem Isik (Exaly, 2026). Most of the citations to the journal came from Environmental Science and Pollution Research.

Public Profiles:

References:

  • Ahmed et al. (2021): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.127723
  • Anser et al. (2020b): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2020.101699
  • Anser et al. (2020a): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2020.109668
  • Bashir et al. (2021): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2021.120366
  • Chandio et al. (2020): https://doi.org/10.1108/JABES-01-2020-0004
  • Choudhary et al. (2020): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2020.101296
  • Dagar et al. (2022):https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16861-4
  • Ding et al. (2020): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2013.05.021
  • Exaly. (2026). https://exaly.com/journal/23438/energy-sources-part-b-economics-planning-and-policy/citing-authors
  • Fatima et al. (2022): https://doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2022.830286
  • Irfan et al. (2022): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2022.121524
  • Mohsin et al. (2021): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.frl.2020.101520
  • Mohsin et al. (2025): https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-026-37717-9
  • Musah et al. (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13816-7
  • PubPeer (A07507B3B972D2A8AF6158234EB538): https://www.pubpeer.com/publications/A07507B3B972D2A8AF6158234EB538
  • PubPeer (6FC526A792DA006697A42D23A8E254): https://www.pubpeer.com/publications/6FC526A792DA006697A42D23A8E254
  • PubPeer (FC35085551B5F67C95B4A69E8CCFF8): https://www.pubpeer.com/publications/FC35085551B5F67C95B4A69E8CCFF8
  • PubPeer (DB0B4BC1DBEB1099A1760FA9100AA7): https://www.pubpeer.com/publications/DB0B4BC1DBEB1099A1760FA9100AA7
  • Rehman et al. (2022): https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16998-2
  • Retraction Watch. (2016). https://retractionwatch.com/2016/05/06/peer-review-scam-leader-now-up-to-20-retractions/
  • Retraction Watch. (2025). https://retractionwatch.com/2025/07/29/frontiers-retract-122-articles-links-thousands-other-publishers-journals-to-unethical-network/
  • Shahbaz et al. (2022): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2021.121758
  • Shahbaz et al. (2020): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2020.118162
  • Shahbaz et al. (2025): https://doi.org/10.1007/s13563-025-00511-z
  • Sharma et al. (2022): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2022.103168
  • Yasmeen et al. (2021): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2021.102013
  • Wang et al. (2025): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2024.108160
  • Zaman et al. (2016): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.12.001
  • Zameer et al. (2020a): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2020.120326
  • Zameer et al. (2020b): https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09112-5

Summary

The evidence confirms that Muhammad Shahbaz and his core collaborators hold, or have held, editorial positions in different journals. This is less likely to be a random distribution, and more likely represents a systematic capture of editorial influence across a significant slice of the energy-environmental economics literature.

This pattern allows the network to:

  • Control the peer-review process for their own and each other’s submissions.
  • Expedite the publication of their papers.
  • Organize special issues (as guest editors) which can be used to rapidly publish a large volume of work with potentially compromised peer review.
  • Influence journal metrics through coordinated citation practices.

This network has effectively built a self-reinforcing ecosystem where they control both the production (as authors) and the gatekeeping (as editors) of academic knowledge in their field. The fact that several of these journals have had to retract papers and editors associated with this network underscores the seriousness of the problem. Interesting, an editor removed by one journal has still retained his position in another journal by the same publisher.

Syed Abdul Rehman Khan

Syed Abdul Rehman Khan is a prolific researcher in supply chain and environmental management who has faced significant academic integrity challenges, particularly regarding high-volume retractions and conflicts of interest. He is the editor of the Springer Book Series on Industrial Ecology.

• Massive Publication Retractions: He has had numerous research papers retracted from various international journals due to issues ranging from compromised peer review to data irregularities and citation manipulation.

• Retracted Book: His book, Strategic Supply Chain Management (Springer), was notably retracted, which is a rare and severe occurrence in academic publishing.

• Editorial Conflicts of Interest: He co-edited the book Sustainable Production and Consumption Systems with Charbel Jabbour; significantly, this book was published in a series where Khan himself served as the series editor, raising serious questions about the independence and rigor of the editorial process.

• Network Connectivity: He is identified as a key collaborator within the network involving Muhammad Shahbaz and Charbel Jabbour, frequently appearing on papers that have been flagged for “citation stacking.”

• Hyper-Prolificity: Like other members of this group, his extremely high rate of publication has led to scrutiny regarding “gift authorship” and the potential use of paper-mill services.

• Current Status: Despite his extensive record of retractions, he remains active in the field, though he has been a primary target of investigation for academic integrity watchdogs and bibliometric analysts.

• Paper Mill disguised as ‘Consultancy’: He is the Director of BUSINESS RESEARCH AND CONSULTANCY LTD. It is widely believed that the company is a paper mill that not only provides manuscripts but also ensures they are published in Web of Science-indexed journals.

Muhammad Mohsin

Muhammad Mohsin is a faculty member at School of Finance and Economics, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China. He and Hashim Zameer did PhD from same institution, and have collaborated on number of papers. He is a member of “unethical network”, as per Retraction Watch (2025). There is one verified report that confirms that he was the editor of a collection at a Frontiers journal, where he also acted as a reviewer for a paper submitted by his former collaborator (Retraction Watch, 2025). He and Zameer are running a paper mill that helps young scholars (mostly PhD students) publish papers in different SCIE/SSCIE journals, some of them are associated with Muhammad Shahbaz and his accomplices. His several papers, and those of his collaborators and clients, have been retracted.

Public Profiles:

  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4723-4184
  • Scopus: https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=57217376244
  • ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Muhammad-Mohsin-68

References:

Retraction Watch. (2025). https://retractionwatch.com/2025/07/29/frontiers-retract-122-articles-links-thousands-other-publishers-journals-to-unethical-network/

Thippa Reddy Gadekallu

Thippa Reddy Gadekallu is a computer scientist and professor currently affiliated with Zhejiang A&F University in China. He previously worked as an associate professor at the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) in India, where he obtained his Ph.D. in machine learning in 2017. He has published extensively, with over 480 papers and a reported h-index of 75, placing him among the world’s most highly cited researchers.

Gadekallu’s editorial role has been central to his academic rise—and to the controversies surrounding him. He has served as Lead Guest Editor for multiple special issues, including a collection on Meta-Heuristic Algorithms for Next-Generation IoT Networks for the International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks (Sage). In this capacity, he was responsible for inviting submissions, assigning reviewers, and making final acceptance decisions.

However, investigations by Retraction Watch and others have uncovered serious misconduct linked to his editorial activities. A review of 31 publicly available peer review reports found that reviewers on papers Gadekallu edited frequently recommended that authors cite his own work—on 35 occasions—and the work of his coauthors on 79 occasions. In one documented case, a PLOS One paper assigned to Gadekallu received review comments that were brief and generic, but both reviewers specifically demanded citations to Gadekallu’s articles and those of his collaborators. One reviewer even provided a direct link to a collaborator’s Google Scholar profile with the instruction: “Visit this profile and cite related papers”. The author described the request as “inappropriate”.

Gadekallu has been linked to numerous retractions in journals he edited. He served as a productive editor for PLOS One until his dismissal from that board in October 2024, following an investigation into his activities. He has also served as a reviewer on at least 949 papers, according to Clarivate’s Web of Science. While Gadekallu has admitted that he typically relied on collaborators to conduct peer reviews, he has denied any intentional manipulation, stating: “I completely understand why it might look concerning from the outside, but I categorically deny any behind the scenes coordination, pressure, or exchange regarding citations”. Nevertheless, his h-index jumped an extraordinary 17 points in 2019, 23 points in 2020, and 19 points in 2021—increases that experts have described as “definitely suspect”.

Muhammad Zubair Asghar

Muhammad Zubair Asghar is an Associate Professor at the Gomal Research Institute of Computing (GRIC) at Gomal University in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, and concurrently serves as a Research Lead at Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) in Malaysia. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science with a specialized focus on sentiment analysis, opinion mining, natural language processing, and deep learning, and has authored over 70 research publications, receiving recognition in the Elsevier/Stanford top 2% scientists list for 2024.

Despite these credentials, Asghar is most notably known as the Lead Guest Editor for the special issue on “Applications of Continual Learning in Cognitive-Based Healthcare Recommender Systems,” published in Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience (Hindawi/Wiley) between 2022 and 2024. In March 2024, the publisher retracted the entire issue following a formal investigation that uncovered systematic manipulation of the peer-review process, the inclusion of irrelevant and nonsensical content, forced citation rings, and compromised editorial oversight. Among the authors whose papers were retracted was Thippa Reddy Gadekallu, whose case was covered by Retraction Watch. As the lead editor, Asghar bore the ultimate responsibility for inviting submissions, assigning reviewers, and approving final decisions, and the investigation concluded that he failed entirely to uphold basic scholarly gatekeeping. Consequently, his name has become prominently associated with the Hindawi mass retraction crisis, and his editorial integrity has been permanently damaged within the global research community.

The damage was so extensive that it contributed directly to the permanent closure of Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience—the journal ceased publication and no longer accepts submissions. The journal was one of four Hindawi titles shuttered in May 2023 after being identified as “heavily compromised by paper mills”. His editorial integrity has been permanently damaged, and his name has become prominently associated with one of the largest academic publishing scandals in modern history.

Aurangzeb Khan

Aurangzeb Khan is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Science and Technology (UST) in Bannu, Pakistan, where he has also served as Dean of the Faculty of CS&IT and as Vice Chancellor. His academic research spans big data, data science, web mining, and machine learning, and he has led applied projects on judicial decision support systems and sentiment analysis for e-governance.

Khan served as a Guest Editor for the special issue on “Applications of Continual Learning in Cognitive-Based Healthcare Recommender Systems,” published in Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience (Hindawi/Wiley) from 2022 to 2024. In March 2024, Wiley formally retracted the entire issue after an investigation confirmed that the peer-review process had been systematically outsourced and manipulated, allowing low-quality, out-of-scope, and citation-stuffed articles to be accepted without proper scrutiny. Among the authors whose papers were retracted was Thippa Reddy Gadekallu, whose case was covered by Retraction Watch. As a guest editor, Khan was jointly responsible for managing the submission workflow and verifying the authenticity of reviewer reports. The investigation found that he failed to detect or prevent these irregularities during the two-year editorial period, thereby neglecting his fundamental duty as an academic gatekeeper. This incident has severely undermined his credibility as a journal editor and peer reviewer, permanently linking his name to one of the largest academic integrity breaches in modern publishing history and casting a long shadow over his prior administrative and research achievements.

The damage was so extensive that it contributed directly to the permanent closure of Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience—the journal ceased publication and no longer accepts submissions. The journal was one of four Hindawi titles shuttered in May 2023 after being identified as “heavily compromised by paper mills”. His editorial integrity has been permanently damaged, and his name has become prominently associated with one of the largest academic publishing scandals in modern history.

Shakeel Ahmad

Shakeel Ahmad is a Professor at the Faculty of Computing and Information Technology at Rabigh (FCITR), King Abdulaziz University, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He earned his B.Sc. (Hons.) from Gomal University in 1986, his M.Sc. in Computer Science from Quaid-e-Azam University in 1990, and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Universiti Sains Malaysia in 2010. He spent over two decades as a faculty member at Gomal University before joining King Abdulaziz University in 2014, where he continues to hold a senior academic position.

Ahmad served as a Guest Editor for the special issue on “Applications of Continual Learning in Cognitive-Based Healthcare Recommender Systems,” published in Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience (Hindawi/Wiley) between 2022 and 2024. The publisher retracted the entire issue in March 2024 after an investigation uncovered systematic manipulation of peer reviews, the presence of irrelevant and nonsensical papers, and orchestrated citation-farming rings. Among the authors whose papers were retracted was Thippa Reddy Gadekallu, whose case was covered by Retraction Watch. As a guest editor, Ahmad was expected to exercise rigorous scholarly oversight over all submissions assigned to him. The investigation concluded that he failed to identify or report any of these glaring irregularities throughout the editorial period, effectively allowing a comprehensively compromised issue to proceed under his name. This retraction has severely tarnished his editorial integrity and raises serious concerns about how a senior professor at a top-tier Saudi university could permit such widespread academic fraud to occur under his watch, likely affecting his future eligibility for editorial roles at reputable international journals.

The damage was so extensive that it contributed directly to the permanent closure of Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience—the journal ceased publication and no longer accepts submissions. The journal was one of four Hindawi titles shuttered in May 2023 after being identified as “heavily compromised by paper mills”. His editorial integrity has been permanently damaged, and his name has become prominently associated with one of the largest academic publishing scandals in modern history.

List of Predatory Scholars

The list of predatory researchers is available here. These are the authors who followed unethical practices of authorship, and their editorial contributions are not yet known.

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