z-bio 2025-09-17 2652

　　Recently, Yasser Fakri Mustafa, dean of the School of Pharmacy at Mosul University in Iraq, is being caught in the center of a storm.

　　This "high-yield scholar" who once produced 120 papers per year has now been found to have a close relationship with the paper factory and has been continuously withdrawn by publishing groups such as Elsevier and Springer Nature.

Yasser Fakri Mustafa

　　From "high-yield scholar" to "large withdrawalist"

　　Mustafa's identity is quite prominent: he is not only the dean of the School of Pharmacy, a well-known Iraqi institution, Mosul, but also serves as the editor-in-chief of the Iraqi Journal of Pharmacy. At the same time, his academic output showed a puzzling mutation.

　　According to records from a research database, in the 12 years from 2008 to 2019, he published up to one or two papers a year, and even had no output throughout the year. However, since 2020, the number of papers published has begun to rise sharply, and reached an astonishing 120 in 2022 - meaning that an average of one paper he signed with is published every 3 days. This "high-yield" model that goes against common sense has aroused doubts from people in the academic circle.

　　The doubts were quickly verified. Since 2022, many international academic publishers have begun to withdraw his published papers one after another. As of now, the number of papers that have been withdrawn under his name has reached at least 16, and another 81 papers have been publicly marked on the academic discussion website PubPeer, which indicates that more papers may be withdrawn in the future.

　　According to the withdrawal notice, its problems involve the core ethical restriction areas of academic research, including manipulating the identity of the author - adding authors who do not match the research contribution during the revision of the paper; manipulating peer review - allowing "friendly reviewers" who have interests related to the author to manipulate the publication process; being unable to provide original experimental data as required; and reuse of ethical approval numbers, etc. These behaviors seriously violate the basic norms of academic publishing.

　　Faced with the allegations, Mustafa and his agency tried to downplay the seriousness of the problem. In response to the inquiry, Mustafa selectively focused on three papers withdrawn by Frontiers Press, because these retraction notices provided little detail except for the statement that the investigation found “a serious violation of our author’s policies and publishing ethics.”　　

　　Thesis factory doubts

　　What kind of operating mechanism is hidden behind the abnormal surge in Mustafa’s paper production? The answer points to a major cancer in the global academic community - the paper factory.

　　In 2022, the output of Mustafa papers reached its peak. In the same year, independent academic detectives Nick Wise and Alexander Magazinov linked it to the "Author Identity Buying and Selling Network" for the first time in a blog post. Through careful investigation, the two academic detectives found that several papers jointly published by Mustafa and some international co-authors were exactly in line with advertisements for selling papers with clear price tags on multiple websites.

　　They followed the clues and tracked a website located in Latvia. The website is recognized as an operating "paper factory". They compared papers that appeared in advertisements posted on the site with published papers and made their findings public on PubPeer.

　　An online document list details published papers that match the website advertisement of the paper factory, including several papers whose Mustafa has not been withdrawn.

　　The most conclusive evidence in this incident comes from a paper that has been withdrawn by Esevier.The paper's withdrawal notice is directly related to a post on PubPeer.The post shows a Facebook ad, which sells the paper publicly.

　　The withdrawal notice revealed the "standard process" of paper factory operations: the study was originally contributed separately by an Iranian author, and during the revision phase, Mustafa and several other authors were added to the author list.

　　This scandal may involve higher levels of Iraqi academic circles.On the list of co-authors of Mustafa’s withdrawn papers, at least two former presidents of Iraqi University appeared.One of the former principals had a paper withdrawn in 2023 because of manipulating author identity and peer review.

　　It is worth mentioning that this scholar, who once recorded the withdrawal record, is now serving as the chairman of the National Scientific Research Committee under the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Iraq.

　　Lack of supervision measures

　　Faced with such serious accusations and evidence, the responses of the relevant parties seem uneven and even contradictory.

　　On the one hand, there are big differences in the responses in the publishing industry.In addition to the withdrawal information provided by Frontiers Press, other publishers provided detailed information on Mustafa's withdrawal papers.

　　For example, a journal under Springer Nature pointed out: "The author failed to provide basic data as required by the editor. In addition, the author failed to provide documentary evidence that had been obtained before the start of this study. The ethical approval number described in this article appears to be the same as a certain ethical approval number in the previous articles of some authors."

　　Mustafa himself only selectively responded to the relevant withdrawal notice, and the University of Mosul where he is located has not responded to multiple requests for comment.The argument he gave for "procedural issues" forms a huge contrast with the publisher's detailed description of violations and is difficult to be convincing.

　　It should be pointed out that despite the continuous increase in the number of withdrawals, Mustafa's papers are still being published continuously.

　　On the other hand, publishers also vary in their survey transparency.Frontiers Publishing claims it has ended its investigation into Mustafa, but declined to disclose specific details of the "ethical and author's identity violation" it found, on the grounds of confidentiality.

　　Only one publisher spokesperson said: "When the investigation gets widespread attention, we communicate with the author and his agency and share relevant findings to support further review or action."

　　Publisher Taylor & Francis said that it is still conducting an "independent investigation" into doubts related to the dean's multiple articles.Springer Nature was asked if it was investigating the matter, but it still did not respond two weeks later.

　　However, the academic reputation damage caused by this incident has already occurred.An anonymous scholar at the University of Mosul revealed that Mustafa’s problem has raised concerns among his colleagues."The damage to Mosul University is obvious," said the scholar, who asked to be anonymous for fear of retaliation.