LAUSR

Academic journals in Russia are retracting more than 800 papers following a probe into unethical publication practices by a commission appointed by the Russian Academy of Sciences. Last summer, the academy9s Commission for Counteracting the Falsification of Scientific Research asked 541 journals to retract a total of 2528 papers. In an interim report published on 7 January, the commission writes that 390 journals have so far responded to the inquiry, 265 of which have agreed to retract all suspicious papers; others agreed to retract some of the highlighted papers but not others. The moves come in the wake of several other queries suggesting that Russia9s vast academic literature is riddled with plagiarism, self-plagiarism, and so-called gift authorships.