Kowsar Publishing Company Legal Department in accordance with ethics committee of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences (on behalf of editorial board of Jundishapur Journal of Microbiology – JJM) and ethics committee of Iranian Hospital in Dubai (on behalf of editorial board of Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal – IRCMJ) investigated several cases of authorship manipulations and illegal guest and gift authorship cases in 13 published (12 articles in Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal (IRCMJ) and 1 article in Jundishapur Journal of Microbiology (JJM), full list is in Table 1) and 52 accepted (but not published, Table 2) articles. The mentioned group decided to retract published items from journals and also stop the publishing process of other 52 articles and withdraw them from both journal websites. The decision was made after a close investigation about the evidences from authorship manipulation and illegal access to manuscript files and changing the text of manuscript without journal’s permission. Based on a legal case registered in court of Tehran, Iran (place of the claimed crime) and evidences provided by cyber police of Iran, journals retracted/withdraw the below mentioned articles from publication.
Table 1. Published Articles.
| ID | Title | DOI |
|---|---|---|
| 20302 | A Comparative Analysis of Diagnostic Accuracy of Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma Performed by Emergency Medicine and Radiology Residents | http://dx.doi.org/10.5812/ircmj.20302 |
| 19403 | Measurement of Central venous pressure using the ultrasound in emergency | http://dx.doi.org/10.5812/ircmj.19403 |
| 12596 | Resistant strains of Enterotoxigenic Staphylococcus aureus; is it an unknown risk for MS exacerbation?! | http://dx.doi.org/10.5812/ircmj.12596 |
| 29706 | Shiga toxigenic Escherichia coli in Iranian diarrheic and non Diarrheic pediatric patients: O Serogroups, virulence factors and antimicrobial resistance properties | http://dx.doi.org/10.5812/ircmj.29706 |
| 28974 | Full ring intracorneal implantation in corneas with pellucid marginal degeneration | http://dx.doi.org/10.5812/ircmj.28974 |
| 21341 | Evaluation of the diagnostic value of the Leukocyte esterase test strip reagents for the rapid clinical diagnosis of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in patients admitted to the hospital emergency departments in Iran | http://dx.doi.org/10.5812/ircmj.21341 |
| 19406 | The Effect of Testosterone on Men with Andropause | http://dx.doi.org/10.5812/ircmj.19406 |
| 22053 | Incidence and risk factors of an intraoperative arrhythmia in transhiatal esophagectomy | http://dx.doi.org/10.5812/ircmj.22053 |
| 18631 | Evaluating the density of toxic elements in the respiratory organs of Rosemary herbal medicine grown in the Isfahan and Shahr E Kurd | http://dx.doi.org/10.5812/ircmj.18631 |
| 26095 | Profile of virulence factors in the multi Drug resistant Pseudomnonas aeruginosa strains of human Urinary Tract Infections | http://dx.doi.org/10.5812/ircmj.26095 |
| 17211 | Antimicrobial Susceptibility Pattern of Ureaplasma urealyticum and Mycoplasma hominis Isolated from the Pregnant Women | http://dx.doi.org/10.5812/ircmj.17211 |
| 12257 | Evaluation of Relationship Between Serum Vitamin D Level and Severity of Sepsis | http://dx.doi.org/10.5812/ircmj.12257 |
| 27646 | Antibiotic Resistance Properties of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolated From The Cases of Superficial Infections in The Emergency Ward | http://dx.doi.org/10.5812/jjm.27646 |
Table 2. Accepted but not Published Articles.
| ID | Title |
|---|---|
| 23752 | Designing a Consumer Relationship Management Instrument for Iran Hospitals |
| 25025 | Comparison Evaluation of Bone Mineral Density in Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis before Treatment and one year after Treatment with Alendronate |
| 23080 | Determination of specificity and sensitivity of Rheumatoid Factor and Anti CCP tests in Patients with RA in private clinic in Tehran, Iran |
| 14212 | A |
| 24985 | To evaluate the frequency of mortality in patients with hip fracture due to minimal trauma and its related factors in a hospital |
| 24367 | Evaluation of Patellar Dislocation Before and After Medial Opening Wedge High Tibial Osteotomy: Radiographic and Computed Tomography Findings |
| 26464 | Evaluation of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on Decreasing Pain of Fibromyalgia |
| 28394 | The Correlation between Gastrointestinal Pains and the Dorsal Spine Dysfunction, and the Effect of Manipulation on them |
| 27911 | Local Corticosteroid Injection to Trigger Points in the Short Term Treatment of Cervicogenic Headache: A Randomized Clinical Trial |
| 29576 | The Effect of Different Heparin Solutions Volume Upon Blood Gas Analysis |
| 29349 | Long Term outcome of renal function and body growth index in children with nephrocalcinosis: a retrospective single center study |
| 26757 | Clinical Outcomes After Continuous Intracorneal Ring implantation in Post LASIK Ectasia: (Long Term Follow Up) |
| 25515 | Characterization and Assessment of Antimicrobial Activity of Terrestrial Streptomyces sp. ACTM 8 Isolated from Kodagu, Karnataka (India) |
| 19696 | Shock wave versus corticosteroid for plantar fasciitis: randomized clinical trial |
| 20189 | Epidemiologic Study of Convulsions Resulted from Poisoning in Children who Referred to Hospital |
| 19772 | Women's Perception of Barriers to Breast Self Examination (BSE) |
| 20684 | A survey on anthropometric attributes of patella and patellofemoral joint and the prevalence of trochlear dysplasia in normal Iranian population |
| 29353 | The prevalence of pronator teres among patients with carpal tunnel syndrome: cross Sectional study |
| 31320 | Lateral Facetectomy of the Patella versus Osteophytes Removal in Patella Retaining Total Knee Arthroplasty |
| 19689 | Growth responses and accumulation of heavy metals by fungus Agaricus bisporus |
| 17418 | Evaluating the Accuracy of Ultrasound in the Diagnosis of Tendon Lacerations of the Hand and Fingers |
| 17428 | A rare case of hamartoma Chest wall following trauma In a 42 Year Old man |
| 17431 | Addressing the psychological problems experienced by brain death donor’s family members: a qualitative Quantitative study |
| 15617 | Evaluation of the effectiveness of PRP injection on the treatment of calcaneal spur |
| 16823 | Prevalence of Ureaplasma urealyticum and Mycoplasma hominis in the High Vaginal Swab Samples of Infertile Women |
| 28817 | Assessment of Cerebrospinal Fluid Zinc Levels in Neonates With Seizure Disorders |
| 22347 | Antioxidant properties and inhibition of lipid peroxidation of 10 algae fromPersian Gulf |
| 17907 | Different Mechanisms of Polyphenols in Prevention of Cancer: A Review |
| 14233 | Comparison of The Precision of Compression Ultrasonography and Duplex Sonography in Deep Venous Thrombosis Patients |
| 22603 | Women's Experiences and Knowledge of Breast Self Examination: A Qualitative Quantitative Study |
| 15407 | Isothermal and rapid detection of Streptococcus pneumoniae using LAMP Assay[collected:inpress] |
| 16914 | Evaluating outcome of distal tibia and fibula fractures treated with intra medullary nailing in Firoozgar hospital during 2012 2014[collected:inpress] |
| 24684 | The Effect of Double J Stent in the Treatment of Kidney Stones Larger Than Ten mm in Children Under 13 Years Using Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy (ESWL)[collected:18 01] |
| 12302 | The results of Single Bundle versus Double Bundle ACL Reconstruction surgery, a Retrospective Study and review of literature[collected:inpress] |
| 11947 | Exploring The Elements of Nurses` Capacity in Their Ethics Based Professional Care: A Thematic Analysis[collected:waiting list] |
| 29290 | Association between leptin G2548A and leptin receptor Q223R polymorphisms with type 2 diabetes in an Iranian population |
| 29356 | Comparative Study of HRV Indexes Between Severe and Non Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea Patients[collected:waiting list] |
| 26150 | The Effect of 17α Hydroxyprogestrone Caproate on Prevention of Preterm Labor in High Risk Pregnant Women[collected|:inpress] |
| 27204 | Beliefs of Women about Obese Persons and the Affecting Factors |
We hereby would like to request authors to respect the decision made by the journals. On the other hand, we have notified COPE, committee of publication ethics about this authorship manipulation and sent them the complete list of people and whom we think might be responsible for this scientific misconduct. All retraction notes and retracted XML packages have also been sent to PMC for removing these articles from their database. We also keep the rights for our journals and their editorial board members to follow this case legally.
As a result of this scientific misconduct, we changed a few of our authorship changes rules and regulations. The letter with complete list of changes might be found in publisher website, in the link below:
(link: http://kowsarpub.com/en/index.php/events/news/842-no-authorship-changes-after-accept)
We, Kowsar Publishing Company, completely understand our huge duty on keeping the safety of science world and publishing environment and will follow all next coming suspicious cases to guarantee that nothing same will happen again.
A complete list of the articles and authors might be found from the Tables 1 and 2.