Canada currently has no independent office to investigate cases of research misconduct in universities. Under the current system, investigations are carried out by the researchers' own institutions. Naturally, they have an inherent conflict of interest and often falsified research records are left uncorrected. As a result, the scientific community can be misled for years by such falsified results. Canada's federal granting agencies (e.g., NSERC) cannot challenge the institution's findings or its decisions in such cases.

We believe science is too important to be left to university administrators.

LORI has been created to bring to light instances of research misconduct independent of institutions. LORI's sustained efforts in recent years have resulted in successful retractions of many scientific papers that were funded by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Ideally, these papers should have been retracted by the institution involved.

Our mission is to demonstrate how ineffective the current system is in correcting scientific records. We believe that this will stimulate discussion and would hopefully lead to the establishment of an effective central agency to deal with research misconduct, independent of universities. More about the site here.

Canadian institutions' research integrity policies and regulations

Indeed, these policies or "rules" may ultimately be simply cosmetically appealing, politically correct half measures that create the illusion a university is serious about assuring truthful and competent research. The "fraud" of implementing toothless internal regulations dealing with research misconduct and whistleblower protection within Canadian universities may be as bad as or worse than the misconduct itself.

Excerpt from the artcle "Enforcement needed" by:

W. Andrew Harrell
Professor Emeritus, University of Alberta
Attorney at Law, Long Beach, California

Jennifer A. Boisvert
Clinical Psychologist & Mediator
Alberta & California

Posts:

Raising awareness of research integrity by presenting cases of research misconduct 

Useful Links for Ontario

Quality assurance Council

"What quality assurance practices mean for Ontario's universities"  By Nora Loreto

A new council to oversee program quality assurance at Ontario Universities

Posted: April 24, 2013

| Council of Ontario Universities-

Patrick Oosthuizen - Queen's Representative of the Ontario Quality Assurance Council

 How can you be involved in quality assurance of the undergraduate and graduate programs in Ontario and grossly violate the ethical standards that are expected for a high-quality program?

..... See the rest of this letter >>>>

Posted: April 19, 2013

 Response to Queen's University Letter of April 16, 2013

 Queen's Letter of April 16, 2013                Response

  Posted: April 17, 2013 

 Years of Intimidation:  Response to Queen's University Letter of April 05, 2013 

 Queen's Letter of March 05, 2013             Response

 Posted: April 15, 2013

Council of Ontario Universities-

Patrick Oosthuizen - Member | Academic Colleague Representative

Plagiarism is not a victimless crime.  Queen's should publicly acknowledge the authorship of real authors and inform the Council of Ontario Universities. 

 Posted: April 08, 2013

So, where are the findings of the investigative committee?

What about retracting papers and returning all that money to the funding agency?

The answer is given below:

    Personal information!?

"Taxpayers have a right to know about instances in which their money has been misused. Research misconduct can affect the reliability of the scientific literature, and other scientists and journal editors have a clear interest in knowing about it."   ( Excerpt from the Nature's article 'Blackened Names')

 Posted: April 04, 2013

Council of Ontario Universities-

 Patrick Oosthuizen - Member | Academic Colleague Representative

 The Ontario Universities Council on Quality Assurance (the Quality Council) is "an arm’s length body designed to ensure rigorous quality assurance of university undergraduate and graduate programs." The Quality Council has nine members, including Patrick Oosthuizen from Queen's University. Patrick Oosthuizen's Bio posted on the council website includes this paragraph:

“He [Patrick Oosthuizen] was greatly involved with the CDIO initiative in engineering education in its earlier stages. This work involved investigation of the criteria that define a high-quality engineering program.”

 In fact Patrick Oosthuizen's CDIO- related publications on 'Engineering Education' contain substantial plagiarized materials. See, for example, here, here, here, and here. The Bio needs to be corrected to better reflect the facts. This is particularly important for an arm's length body which is designed to ensure "rigorous quality assurance" of programs.  

You can’t be involved in quality assurance of undergraduate and graduate programs in Ontario and plagiarizing. 

Posted: March 23, 2013

Queen’s is violating section 6 (b) of the Senate Policy on Research Integrity *  

Several cases of  redundant publication and copyright violations involving Patrick Oosthuizen, vice-chair of the Senate and his senior co-author, Kim B. McAuley  were recently reported here, here,  here, and here.

We now have an update on this case:  Read the rest of this entry >>>>>    

Posted: March 18, 2013

4th paper on 'Engineering Education' containing substantial plagiarized material.

Author: Patrick Oosthuizen,Vice-Chair of Senate , Queen's University, Canada

 "THE ART OF ENGINEERING – ITS PLACE IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION"

Proceedings of the 4th International CDIO Conference, Hoogeschool Gent, Gent, Belgium, June 16-19, 2008 

Big chunks of this paper are lifted from the work of other authors without acknowledgement. In some cases, paragraphs have been cosmetically altered. The Vice-Chair has taken all figures from various online sources. 

  How a conference paper on "Art of Engineering" (18 pages long) was prepared using huge images of Mr. Bean's Mini !  , spitfire, and Google e Book covers !?        Read the rest of this entry >>>>



Posted: March 13, 2013

  Should Senate expel serial plagiarists?

According to the University Secretariat, Senate is "responsible for determining all matters of academic character affecting the University as a whole, including student discipline. It shares responsibility with the Board of Trustees for appointing the Principal."  

 Posted: March 10, 2013

Another self-plagiarized paper authored by Patrick Oosthuizen, Vice-Chair of Senate, Queen's University.

 Many cases of blatant plagiarism and self- plagiarism involving vice-chair of Senate of Queen's University have come to light in recent months (see the entries below).

 The latest case is about a self-plagiarized paper where the vice-chair depicts previously published text, methodology, results, and the conclusions as new, without acknowledging the source. The paper is entitled:  "Validation of a Numerical Model for Prediction of.......", and was presented in the 4th international Conference on Nanochannels, Microchannels and Minichannels, Limerick, Ireland.  

The federal framework for the responsible conduct of research lists redundant publications as a breach of the rules governing federally funded research.The framework defines ' redundant publication' as “re-publication of one’s own previously published work or part thereof, or data, in the same or another language, without adequate acknowledgment of the source, or justification.”

 Travel expenses incurred to present redundant and ‘cut -and -paste’ papers in different locations are not among the eligible expenses listed by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Posted: March 09, 2013

Third paper on 'Engineering Education' containing substantial plagiarized material.

Author:  Vice-Chair of Senate* , Queen's University, Canada 

 "THE OTHER NEW YORK CRASHES: THEIR USE IN A CDIO PROGRAM",  Patrick H. Oosthuizen, Vice-Chair, Senate of Queen's University, and Chair of the Board of the Faculty of Applied Science ., Proceedings of the 3rd International CDIO Conference, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, June 11-14, 2007.

  The author argues that "some discussion of engineering ethics should be incorporated throughout an engineering program". But large sections of his paper are lifted from various online sources including an article by Brian Kates in Boston Globe without acknowledgement.  Read the rest of this entry>>>

 Posted: February 22, 2013 

Another Cut - and- Paste, Plagiarized Paper on 'Engineering Education' Authored by the Vice-Chair of Senate, Queen's University, Canada  

Patrick Oosthuizen and Jane T. Paul, "TEACHING THE HISTORY OF ENGINEERING: REASONS AND POSSIBLE APPROACHES", Proceedings of the 3rd International CDIO Conference, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, June 11-14, 2007. 

 The vice-chair argues in the paper that "engineering history" should be included in a CDIO program to "demonstrate the importance of ethics in engineering, to provide examples that demonstrate how difficult it is in some situations to know what is the most ethical solution to the problem at hand ..." 

 Big chunks of this paper are lifted from source 1 and source 2 without acknowledgement. In some cases, paragraphs have been cosmetically altered.

Examples of text lifted are shown below (emphases added). It seems that the author has pulled material from a number of sources and repackaged them as his own work: 

  Read the rest of this entry >>>

Posted: February 09, 2013 

German minister Annette Schavan stripped of doctorate 

Toronto school board director Chris Spence may have plagiarized multiple articles

 Posted: Feb. 5, 2013

 Retract the papers, Mr. Principal. Yet another case of blatant plagiarism by the vice-chair of Senate!  

Two Queen's papers on 'Engineering Education' contain substantial text lifted from the work of other researchers without citation.   

 Both papers are written by Professor Patrick Oosthuizen(P.Eng.), Vice-Chair, Senate of Queen's University, and  Chair of the  Board of the Faculty of Applied Science . The author argues that students need to be exposed to ethical issues. He also discusses the significance of writing " simply, but effectively".  Read the rest of this entry >>>

Posted: January 27, 2013  

Queen's Professor gets Double Credit on his publication list for a redundant paper on 'Engineering Education' and argues that students need to be exposed to ethical issues

   Patrick Oosthuizen, “Using the Works of Nevil Shute in Engineering Education”, Proceedings, 2nd International CDIO Conference, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden, 13 to 14 June 2006. 

 Patrick Oosthuizen, “Using the works of Nevil Shute in engineering education”, World Transactions on Engineering and Technology Education, Volume 5, Number 2, pp. 345-348. (Prof. Zenon J. Pudlowski, ed.-in-Chief).World Transactions on Engineering and Technology Education  © 2006 UICEE 

 There are significant overlaps between these two papers and no cross-referencing. The federal framework for the responsible conduct of research lists redundant publications as a breach of the rules governing federally funded research.

The list of publications should be corrected to reflect a more realistic measure of research productivity. Multiple republications of the same work clutters up the scientific literature and is often used to inflate publication record.

The two papers have strikingly similar titles like many other papers posted earlier. Interestingly, both papers discuss the significance of effective writing.

Excerpts from the two papers are given below. With the exception of few new words that have been added, they are identical. Other parts in the papers are also similar.  The source of funding is not disclosed. 

 Posted: January 17, 2013 

  Forbes: A Barrage Of Legal Threats Shuts Down Whistleblower Site, Science Fraud

 Posted: January 11, 2013

Retraction Watch:  "University of Waterloo suspends researcher who published plagiarized paper — in his own journal"

Posted: January 09, 2013

More 'Cut -and -Paste' conferece papers from Queen's University

Authors: Patrick Oosthuizen & Jane Paul

Travel expenses incurred to present redundant and ‘cut -and -paste’ papers in different locations are not among the eligible expenses listed by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Many more 'cut& paste' conference papers coming soon....... 

A pattern of reusing figures and recycling previously published materials over the past decade. A long –standing practice of depicting previously published methodology, results, and conclusions as new, without acknowledging the source.

  Posted: January 04, 2013

More 'Cut and Paste' Conference Papers from Patrick Oosthuizen (Queen's-RMC Fuel Cell Research Centre) 

  “Secondary Flow in a Trapezoidal Minichannel Flow System Involving Two Straight Sections Separated by a180o Bend” ASME Fifth International Conference on Nanochannels, Microchannels and Minichannels, Patrick Oosthuizen,June 18-20, 2007 at the Universidad De Las Americas Puebla, Mexico.

Big chunks of this paper are taken from a paper entitled: “Flow and Heat Transfer in a Square Minichannel with Rounded Corners”, Proceedings of 3rd International Conference on Microchannels and Minichannels, June 13-15, 2005, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Other sections are taken from another conference paper entitled: “The Effect of Channel Corner Rounding on Flow and Heat Transfer in a Simple Minichannel Flow System Involving Two Straight Sections Separated by a 180o Bend”, Proceedings of the 9th Conference on Process Integration, Modelling and Optimization for Energy Saving and Pollution Reduction (PRES’06), Prague (2006),

And from the following conference papers: 

“The Effect of Rounded Corners on the Flow & Heat Transfer in a Simple Minichannel System”, Proceedings of the 13th International Heat Transfer Conference, August 13-18, 2006 

“Secondary Flow Effects in a Simple Trapezoidal Isothermal Minichannel Flow System Involving Two Straight Sections Separated by a 180 Bend” 15th Annual Conference of the CFD Society, May 27-31, 2007, Toronto.

“Secondary Flow in a Trapezoidal Isothermal Minichannel Flow System Involving a Sharp-Edged 180o Bend” PRES 07 - 10th Conference on Process Integration, Modelling and Optimization for Energy Saving and Pollution Reduction, June 24-27, ISCHIA Island, Gulf of Naples. 

     * No reference is given to the papers that were used in the cut and paste operation. The federal framework for the responsible conduct of research lists redundant publications as a breach of the rules governing federally funded research.

   ** Travel expenses incurred to present redundant and ‘cut and paste’ papers in different locations are not among the eligible expenses listed by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. 

Posted: December 29, 2012

More Salami Slicing in ASME Publications: 

 "Effect of Channel Length on the Flow Cross-over through Gas Diffusion Layer and Pressure Distribution in a PEM Fuel Cell Flow Plate with Serpentine Channels", ASME 2007 (Puebla, Mexico), Lan Sun, Patrick Oosthuizen, and Kim B. McAuley

Major sections of this paper are taken from earlier papers without appropriate referencing. The authors give the impression that all results presented are original. The list of earlier papers is given below:

"A Numerical Study of Channel-to-Channel Flow Cross-Over Through the Gas Diffusion Layer in a PEM Fuel Cell Type Flow System Using a Serpentine Flow Channel With a Trapezoidal Cross-Sectional Shape" , Lan Sun, Partrick H. Oosthuizen , Kim B. McAuley, ASME 3rd International Conference on Microchannels and Minichannels (ICMM2005), Toronto-Canada 

"A numerical study of the effect of flow plate geometry on the pressure distribution and channel-to-channel flow cross-over in a PEM fuel cell using a serpentine flow channel system", Oosthuizen, P. H.; Sun, L.; McAuley, K. B. , Proceedings of the ASME Fluids Engineering Division--2004), 667-673. ASME 2004 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE2004)
November 13 – 19, 2004, Anaheim, California, USA  

“ Effect of Channel Arrangement on Fluid Flow in PEMFC Flow Field using Serpentine Channel System with Trapezoidal Cross-section “,
Lan Sun, Partrick H. Oosthuizen , Kim B. McAuley, Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Technologies, Calgary, Canada, 2005 (Copyright 2005 MetSoc) 

Sections taken from these papers are highlighted... Read More >>>  

Posted: December 21, 2012 

     CMAJ Editorial: Research misconduct? What misconduct?

 "No one can have confidence in the results of Canadian research if we sweep abuses under the carpet"

Posted: Dec.9, 2012

                             Selective Reporting of Data and Affiliation Misrepresentation

Journal of Materials Processing Technology (JMPT) 153–154 (2004) 596–602

“Weldability of Austenitic Manganese Steel”

J. Mendez, M. Ghoreshy, W.B.F. Mackay, T.J.N. Smith, R.W. Smith∗

 This paper appears to have been accepted for publication through a conference in Turkey. The corresponding author is Reginald W Smith from Queen’s University who has  many official retractions , including those in JMPT.

Graphs, tables, and most of the discussion and conclusion sections in this paper are all copied from a Master thesis that was submitted to Queen’s University by J. Mendez almost 28 years ago (J Mendez, Weldability of Austenitic Steel, MSc thesis, Queen’s University,1984 ). Other parts of this paper, for example the section on page 601, Fig. 3 (a), and Fig. (3b) are copied from two other sources....... Read the rest >>  

Posted: December 06, 2012

 More Redundant Publications:  Patrick Oosthuizen* 

Vice-Chair, Senate of Queen's University,

Chair, Board of the Faculty of Applied Science  

"Numerical Study of Pressure Distribution and Flow Cross-Over through Gas Diffusion Layer in PEMFC Flow Plate Using Serpentine Channel with Trapezoidal Cross-Section", Lan Sun, Partrick H. Oosthuizen , Kim B. McAuley, Computational Fluid Dynamics Journal 15(1):21 April 2006, ( pp.159-166) "

 Records need to be corrected for the research community.

“Canada's practices take privacy concerns too far.”

 “Taxpayers have a right to know about instances in which their money has been misused.”

Posted: December 02, 2012

 More Papers with Strikingly Similar Titles 

 We have received more papers with strikingly similar titles.

 Posted: December 1, 2012 

 This paper is published by Elsevier (copyrights 2006 Elsevier).  Large sections of the text, including results, discussion and all conclusions, seem to match another paper previously published in 2005 in another source (copyrights 2005 MetSoc).  The authors thank NSERC and E.I. du Pont  of Canada for support.  

Paragraphs are cosmetically altered and re-arranged. The authors give the impression that the results, methodology and conclusions are all new. What is most disturbing is the fact that the authors give no reference to the original published work. The referees and the editor have been led to believe that the research described is original.

The federal framework for the responsible conduct of research lists redundant publications as a breach of the rules governing federally funded research. The framework defines ' redundant publication' as “re-publication of one’s own previously published work or part thereof, or data, in the same or another language, without adequate acknowledgment of the source, or justification.”

The sections copied are highlighted below. The publication record in grant applications should be corrected.    

 Posted: November 27, 2012

   A numerical study of the effect of flow plate geometry on the pressure distribution and channel-to-channel flow cross-over in a PEM fuel cell using a serpentine flow channel system.

Proceedings of the ASME Fluids Engineering Division--2004, 667-673.ASME 2004 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE2004) November 13 – 19, 2004, Anaheim, California, USA
 

 This paper does not make any significant contribution to the field. Conclusions in the paper are all copied from previous papers. It misleads the funding agencies that count the number of publications to measure research productivity. The authors are with Queen's-RMC Fuel Cell Research Centre (FCRC), Ontario, Canada. 

 Large sections of the text of this paper seem to match previous papers in journals and conference proceedings . A large number of figures are identical to figures published in another conference paper. What makes the problem even more serious is the fact that previously published papers are not referenced. It is unacceptable for authors in general to depict their previously published results, methodology and conclusions as new,without acknowledging the source.The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) should investigate in accordance with the established procedures to determine whether a violation of ASME Ethical Standard has occurred.  

Posted: November 21, 2012 

---

 University of Waterloo-  Retraction for duplication 

 posted November 18, 2012  

  The list of "Refereed Publications" with strikingly similar titles getting longer

Patrick Oosthuizen, Lan Sun, and Kim B. McAuley , Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

1. "The Effect of Channel-to-Channel Gas Cross-Over on the Temperature and Pressure Distribution in PEM Fuel Cell Flow Plates" Proceedings of PRES '03, 6th Conference on Process Integration, Modeling and Optimisation for Energy Saving and Pollution Reduction, Hamilton, ON, Oct. 26-29, 2003, 11 pages. (P.H. Oosthuizen, L. Sun and K.B. McAuley).

2. “The Effect of Channel-to-channel gas crossover on the pressure and temperature distribution in PEM fuel cell flow plates”, Applied Thermal Engineering, Vol. 25, 2005, Issue 7, May 2005, Elsevier, pp. 1083-1096. (Authors: P.H. Oosthuizen, Lan Sun and Kim McAuley)

3.  A Numerical Study of the Effect of Flow Cross-over through the Gas Diffusion Layer on the Pressure Distribution in PEMFC Flow Plates. Hydrogen and Fuel Cells” Proceedings - Hydrogen and Fuel Cells 2004. 2004 Conference and Trade Show, September 25-28, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 6 pages.(Authors: Lan Sun, Patrick H. Oosthuizen, Kim B. McAuley) 

4. A numerical study of the effect of flow plate geometry on the pressure distribution and channel-to-channel flow cross-over in a PEM fuel cell using a serpentine flow channel system

Oosthuizen, P. H.; Sun, L.; McAuley, K. B.

From FED (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) (2004), 260(Proceedings of the ASME Fluids Engineering Division--2004), 667-673. | Language: English, Database: CAPLUS ASME 2004 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE2004)
November 13 – 19, 2004, Anaheim, California, USA
Sponsor: Fluids Engineering Division

5. “A Numerical Study of Pressure Distribution and Flow Cross-over through Gas Diffusion Layer in PEMFC Flow Plate Using Serpentine Channel with Trapezoidal Cross-section”, Proceedings on CD of the 13th Annual Conference of the Computational Fluid Dynamics Society of Canada (CFD2005), Newfoundland, July 31-Aug. 2, 2005, pp. 205-212.(Authors: L. Sun, P.H. Oosthuizen, and K.B. McAuley)

6. "A numerical study of channel-to-channel flow cross-over through the gas diffusion layer in a PEM-fuel-cell flow system using a serpentine channel with a trapezoidal cross-sectional shape ", Lan Sun, Patrick H. Oosthuizen*, Kim B. McAuley,International Journal of Thermal Sciences 45 (2006) l02l-1026 

7. "Numerical Study of Pressure Distribution and Flow Cross-Over through Gas Diffusion Layer in PEMFC Flow Plate Using Serpentine Channel with Trapezoidal Cross-Section", Lan Sun, Partrick H. Oosthuizen , Kim B. McAuley, Computational Fluid Dynamics Journal 15(1):21 April 2006, ( pp.159-166) 

8. "A Numerical Study of Channel-to-Channel Flow Cross-Over Through the Gas Diffusion Layer in a PEM Fuel Cell Type Flow System Using a Serpentine Flow Channel With a Trapezoidal Cross-Sectional Shape" , Lan Sun, Partrick H. Oosthuizen , Kim B. McAuley, Paper no. ICMM2005-75077 pp. 427-432 , ASME 3rd International Conference on Microchannels and Minichannels (ICMM2005)  

Posted: Nov. 13, 2012 

 Update: Papers with strikingly similar titles listed as "refereed publication" on FCRC website 



Earlier, we wrote about three published papers by Lan Sun et al that are posted on the FCRC website:  

"A numerical study of channel-to-channel flow cross-over through the gas diffusion layer in a PEM-fuel-cell flow system using a serpentine channel with a trapezoidal cross-sectional shape ", Lan Sun, Patrick H. Oosthuizen*, Kim B. McAuley,International Journal of Thermal Sciences 45 (2006) l02l-1026 

"Numerical Study of Pressure Distribution and Flow Cross-Over through Gas Diffusion Layer in PEMFC Flow Plate Using Serpentine Channel with Trapezoidal Cross-Section", Lan Sun, Partrick H. Oosthuizen , Kim B. McAuley, Computational Fluid Dynamics Journal 15(1):21 April 2006, ( pp.159-166) 

"A Numerical Study of Channel-to-Channel Flow Cross-Over Through the Gas Diffusion Layer in a PEM Fuel Cell Type Flow System Using a Serpentine Flow Channel With a Trapezoidal Cross-Sectional Shape" , Lan Sun, Partrick H. Oosthuizen , Kim B. McAuley, Paper no. ICMM2005-75077 pp. 427-432 , ASME 3rd International Conference on Microchannels and Minichannels (ICMM2005)

 We have now received a response from the second co-author (Patrick Oosthuizen) confirming that "The ICMM2005 paper and the International Journal of Thermal Sciences papers are indeed very similar." Despite this, the FCRC website (accessed Nov.7, 2012) still lists these  papers as two separate "refereed publications". This misleads both the readers and the funding agencies. The record should be corrected to give a more realistic measure of research productivity.   

We don't have any comment from Kim B. McAuley or Lan Sun, the other co-authors in the above papers. We don't know what contribution they have made in these publications.

There are cosmetic alterations in the titles and conclusions, as shown below. What is the rationale for making such  alterations?  Despite significant overlaps between the three papers, there is no appropriate cross-referencing. These papers appear to be clear examples of 'redundant publications' as defined by the federal framework for the responsible conduct of research.

 posted: Nov. 7, 2012



       What is redundant publication? 

The federal framework for the responsible conduct of research lists redundant publications as a breach of the rules governing federally funded research. 

The framework defines ' redundant publication' as “re-publication of one’s own previously published work or part thereof, or data, in the same or another language, without adequate acknowledgment of the source, or justification.”

More about redundant publication here.  See how COPE defines 'redundant publication' .

Posted: November 5, 2012

Comments received from Patrick Oasthuizen on Monday, Nov. 5, 2012 in response to the entry below dated November 3rd, 2012 entitled: "More Publications with strikingly similar titles and the same conclusions"  

 First Name: : Patrick
Last Name: : Oosthuizen

Comments: : My attention has been drawn to a further list of papers of which I am a co-author that has been posted on LORI and which again seems to indicate that I am guilty of self-plagiarism. I would therefore draw your attention to the following facts:

1. The ICMM2005 paper and the International Journal of Thermal Sciences papers are indeed very similar. This is indicated on the first page of the journal paper where a footnote indicates that “A preliminary version of this paper was presented at ICMM05”. The conference paper was one of those selected for journal publication, a not unusual occurrence.
2. The Computational Fluid Dynamics Journal paper is basically different from those mentioned in 1. above. The papers dealt with in 1. above consider flow in a single serpentine channel while the CFD Journal paper deals with flow in the case where there are two parallel serpentine channels, the results for the two channel case being compared to those for the single channel case.

There is therefore no self-plagiarism and again would you immediately either remove this list of papers from the web-site or post my note immediately next to the list.

Patrick H. Oosthuizen
Company: : Queen's University 

 More Publications with strikingly similar titles and the same conclusions,

Lan Sun et al: Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada 

 "A numerical study of channel-to-channel flow cross-over through the gas diffusion layer in a PEM-fuel-cell flow system using a serpentine channel with a trapezoidal cross-sectional shape ",  Lan Sun, Patrick H. Oosthuizen*, Kim B. McAuley,International Journal of Thermal Sciences 45 (2006) l02l-1026 

"Numerical Study of Pressure Distribution and Flow Cross-Over through Gas Diffusion Layer in PEMFC Flow Plate Using Serpentine Channel with Trapezoidal Cross-Section",   Lan Sun,  Partrick H. Oosthuizen , Kim B. McAuley, Computational Fluid Dynamics Journal 15(1):21  April 2006, ( pp.159-166)  

"A Numerical Study of Channel-to-Channel Flow Cross-Over Through the Gas Diffusion Layer in a PEM Fuel Cell Type Flow System Using a Serpentine Flow Channel With a Trapezoidal Cross-Sectional Shape" , Lan Sun, Partrick H. Oosthuizen , Kim B. McAuley, Paper no. ICMM2005-75077 pp. 427-432 ,  ASME 3rd International Conference on Microchannels and Minichannels (ICMM2005) 

Conclusions in the three publications are the same (well, not exactly):

  Posted: Nov. 3, 2012

Comments received from Patrick Oasthuizen on Sunday, Nov. 4, 2012 in response to the entry below entitled " Papers with strikingly Similar Titles"  

First Name: : Patrick
Last Name: : Oosthuizen
Comments: : My attention has been drawn to the list of my papers that have been posted on LORI under the heading “Papers with Strikingly Similar Titles” and which seems to indicate that I am guilty of self-plagiarism. I would therefore draw your attention to the following facts:

1. The first two papers are the same paper. The PRES conference papers have been referred to as either being in the “Proceedings PRES 07 - 10th Conference on Process Integration, Modelling and Optimisation for Energy Saving and Pollution Reduction” or in “Chemical Engineering Transactions, Vol.12, 2007”. You can confirm this by contacting Jiri Klemes, PRES Conference Chair at pres.secretary@cpi.uni-pannon.hu . You should also note that on my list of publications on the Departmental web-site, the paper is only listed as being in the conference proceedings.
2. As indicated by the titles, the PRES paper is quite different from the other two. It deals, as indicated in the title, with a sharp-edged bend. The other two papers deal with a rounded, circular bends. The papers together therefore give an insight into how the shape of the bend influences the development of the secondary flow.
3. The third paper gives results for a rounded bend for Reynolds number up to 300 (500 is mentioned in the text but the figures only give results for Re up to 300). There were several comments in the discussion of the paper of the need to get results for higher Re values to see if this would influence the results.
4. The fourth paper, which was prepared as a result of a request from one of the organizers of the conference for a paper in this area, did therefore provide results for Reynolds numbers up to 1000. The results in the CFD paper therefore compliment those in the ASME Fifth International Conference on Nanochannels, Microchannels and Minichannels papers. The papers at this CFD conference were, by the way, not copyright.

I strongly believe therefore that each of the three papers offered some different, unique results on a topic which at the time was of considerable interest. There is therefore no self-plagiarism and would you either remove the listing from the web-site or publish my letter immediately adjacent to the list. I will also be reporting on this matter to the head of the department and to the Dean.

Patrick H. Oosthuizen
Company: : Queen's University 

Publications with Strikingly Similar Titles

LORI is introducing a new section called “Papers with Strikingly Similar Titles”. Below are few examples we have received so far. We’ll add more titles in the near future:

“Secondary Flow in a Trapezoidal Isothermal Minichannel Flow System Involving a Sharp-Edged 180o Bend”  PRES 07 - 10th Conference on Process Integration, Modelling and Optimisation for Energy Saving and Pollution Reduction, June 24-27, ISCHIA Island, Gulf of Naples.  ww.nt.ntnu Secondary Flow Effects in a Trapezoidal Isothermal ( copy and paste into your browser)

'Secondary Flow in a Trapezoidal Isothermal Minichannel Flow System Involving a Sharp-Edged 180o Bend” , Chemical Engineering Transactions, Vol.12, 2007, 43-48.  

 “Secondary Flow in a Trapezoidal Minichannel Flow System Involving Two Straight Sections Separated by a 180o Bend” ASME Fifth International Conference on Nanochannels, Microchannels and Minichannels, June 18-20, 2007 at the Universidad De Las Americas Puebla, Mexico.

 “Secondary Flow Effects in a Simple Trapezoidal Isothermal Minichannel Flow System Involving Two Straight Sections Separated by a 180 Bend” 15th Annual Conference of the CFD Society, May 27-31, 2007, Toronto.

 Using thermal analysis to predict the microstructure of cast iron. Zhu, P.; Smith, R. W.. Dep. Materials Metallurgical Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Can. Advanced Materials Research (Zug, Switzerland) (1997), 4-5(Physical Metallurgy of Cast Iron V), 439-444. Publisher: Scitec Publications, CODEN: AMREFI ISSN: 1022-6680. Journal written in English. CAN 129:84086 AN 1998:424804 CAPLUS

 Application of thermal analysis to predict the microstructure of cast iron. Zhu, P.; Smith, R. W.. Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Can. Editor(s): Beech, John; Jones, Howard. Solidification Processing 1997, Proceedings of the Decennial International Conference on Solidification Processing, 4th, Sheffield, UK, July 7-10, 1997 (1997), 498-501. Publisher: Department of Engineering Materials, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK CODEN: 65QKAH Conference written in English. CAN 128:170237 AN 1998:92775 CAPLUS

The prediction of the microstructure of cast iron using thermal analysis. Zhu, P.; Smith, R. W.. Department Materials Metallurgical Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Can. Materials Science Forum (1996), 215-216(Solidification and Gravity), 503-510. Publisher: Trans Tech, CODEN: MSFOEP ISSN: 0255-5476. Journal written in English. CAN 126:21354 AN 1996:652894 CAPLUS

The use of thermal analysis to predict the microstructure of cast iron. Zhu, P.; Smith, R. W.. Dep. Met. Eng., Queen's Univ., Kingston, ON, Can. Editor(s): Lait, J. E.; Samarasekera, I. V. F. Weinberg Int. Symp. Solidif. Process., Proc. (1990), 304-18. Publisher: Pergamon, New York, N. Y CODEN: 57PTA8 Conference written in English. CAN 116:156072 AN 1992:156072 CAPLUS

 POSTED: OCTOBER 28, 2012 

University of Toronto researcher censured for ‘self-plagiarism’

By Margaret Munro, Postmedia News October 23, 2012 

 Below is an  excerpt from the article: 

The federal framework for the responsible conduct of research lists self-plagiarism – or “redundant publications” – as a breach of the rules governing federally funded research.

 It defines it as “re-publication of one’s own previously published work or part thereof, or data, in the same or another language, without adequate acknowledgment of the source, or justification.” 

While not as serious as fabricating results or fudging data, self-plagiarism clutters up the scientific literature and can been used to inflate a researcher’s publication record when asking for more research grants. 

posted: October 24, 2012 

THE VIBRATION ENVIRONMENT ON THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION: ITS SIGNIFICANCE TO FLUID-BASED EXPERIMENTS

Authors: Tryggvason B.V.; Duval W.M.B.; Smith R.W.; Rezkallah K.S.; Varma S.; Redden R.F.; Herring R.A.

Acta Astronautica, Volume 48, 2001.,   PUBLISHER: ELSEVIER

 This paper is related to the Queen’s University Experiments in Liquid Diffusion (QUELD) and contains fabricated and falsified data. 

Text and figures are copied from an earlier paper published in the journal of Japan Society for Microgravity Applications.

Data are fabricated and falsified.

Despite clear violations of publication ethics, Elsevier and the journal involved have not yet retracted this misleading paper.

Posted: October 21, 2012

WBF Mackay memorial scholarship : TheHistoric Tribute kept in the University Archives should be corrected.  

It is difficult to imagine how this Tribute can be inspiring when it is clearly misleading. MacKay's paper cited in the tribute is officially retracted because it represents "a severe abuse of the scientific publishing system."

Posted October 14, 2012 

Duplicate papers authored by Reginald W Smith and WBF Mackay (QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY, KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA)

& the establishment of WBF Mackay memorial scholarship in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering:  "holus- bolus recycling, with only minor cosmetic alterations"

In a Faculty Board meeting on October 20, 2004, Reginald W Smith gave tribute to Professor MacKay and announced that a memorial scholarship had been established in memory of Professor MacKay.  Referring to two papers that he co-authored with WBF MacKay, Smith asked the Board members: how many of you will have two papers published in your ninetieth year? Some Board members were probably very impressed. The Chair indicated in the meeting that a copy of the Tribute would be placed in the University Archives. But we know now that those two papers, like many others, were nothing more than “.. holus- bolus recycling, with only minor cosmetic alterations, of material published earlier.  The scale of this activity is remarkable.” [ Dr. McLatchie, Queen’s University's investigation report]

Perhaps the question in the Board meeting should have been posed differently:  How many of you can publish two duplicate papers by copying and pasting old materials that were published 16 years earlier?  How many of you can eliminate the original co-authors and republish the work in the Canadian Metallurgical Quarterly (CMQ)? Interestingly, the current editor of CMQ ( Professor Doug Boyd, Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Queen's University) was present in that Faculty Board meeting.  

The copy of the historic Tribute  that is placed in the University Archives should be corrected.   It is difficult to imagine how it can be inspiring when it is clearly misleading. Old materials published in 1987 were used to manufacture two new duplicate papers in 2003 and 2004 with different titles and different authorship and were subsequently used to support a grant application. The intent to mislead is abundantly clear.

Posted: October 10, 2012  

  New York Times: Misconduct Widespread in Retracted Science Papers, Study Finds" 

posted Oct.4, 2012    

 Smith & Mackay's paper published in Canadian Metallurgical Quarterly (CMQ)

“.. holus-bolus recycling, with only minor cosmetic alterations, of material published earlier. The scale of this activity is remarkable.” Dr. William McLatchie- Queen's                                                                 

This is an update related to the paper published in CMQ in 2003 by Reginald W Smith and WBF MacKay which is entirely copied from another paper published more than 20 years ago. The journal stands idly by while the authors take the previously published work of a former graduate student and republish the same work under their names in CMQ.  

 The Journal's editor is Professor Doug Boyd, P.Eng., a colleague of Reginald W Smith , Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

Despite clear violations of publication ethics and violation of the professional engineers’ code of ethics, the record is still left uncorrected. On the journal website,a video is posted and the editor talks about CMQ. Among the associate editors of CMQ responsible for the journal quality and impact factor is Dr. Mahi Sahoo with his own retracted paper and  duplicate paper co-authored with Reginald W Smith:

   Annals of NY Academy of Sciences- Queen's & CANMET - Officially Retracted

AFS Transaction 02-110, pp. 515-524: Lukman, A.; Smith, R. W.; Sahoo, M. (2002) (Queen's University & CANMET) - Duplicate paper 

What kind of message is CMQ sending to students about academic integrity and about P. Eng. code of ethics?  

According to the journal website:  

“Canadian Metallurgical Quarterly publishes original contributions on all aspects of metallurgy and materials science………..” 

 What original contributions?  

Posted: September 29, 2012

"False positives: fraud and misconduct are threatening scientific research." by Guardian's Alok Jha :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/sep/13/scientific-research-fraud-bad-practice 

posted: September 19, 2012

Reginald W Smith - Queen's University, Canada 

 Affiliation misrepresentation

J. Phys.: Condensed Matter 153855-3865  (2003, )Bing-Jian Yang, RW Smith et al , Materials Science and Microgravity Applications Group, Nicol Hall, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, K7L 3N6, Canada 

 J. Appl.Phys.102, 086103 (2007), RW Smith, Materials Science and Microgravity Applications Group, Nicol Hall, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, K7L 3N6, Canada 

The authors’ affiliation in the above papers is misleading.  

"Materials Science and Microgravity Application Group" is not among the entities recognized by Queen's University. The misleading affiliation should be corrected. 

The allegations of affiliation misrepresentation and numerous duplicate publications were brought to the attention of the Queen’s University Officials in 2008 - 2009.  At that time, they wrote: We are dealing with this issue. “We are dealing with the very essence of an academic career”  

In response to the allegations of affiliation misrepresentation, the university official wrote:  

“An official errata will be given to the journal by the appropriate mechanism….” 

 “As you are aware this is a serious allegation”  

Despite all these, the university did not take any serious steps to correct the records. Many duplicated papers with bogus authorship and bogus affiliation are still not corrected. Many allegations of data falsification and data fabrication have not yet been objectively investigated by the university.  

How can one have confidence in the results of the university research if records are not corrected and abuses of this scale are swept under the carpet?  What sort of message are we sending to students? 

posted, September15, 2012 

Update: Queen's University Experiments in Liquid Diffusion (QUELD)

Queen's Data Used in NASA presentations are Falsified and Fabricated

                                                                                                 BV Trygvason, visiting professor, University of Western Ontario

 NASA Glenn Microgravity environment interpretation tutorial (MEIT): 

 One of the objectives of the NASA Glenn Microgravity environment interpretation tutorial (MEIT) training course is to "educate both Project Scientists (PS) and Principal Investigators (PI) about the impact the microgravity environment will have on their experiments"

 All the following MEIT presentations related to the Queen's Experiments contain substantial data that are  falsified and fabricated:

Trygvason - PIMS 2001

Trygvason - PIMS 2002

Trygvason - PIMS 2003  

posted:September7, 2012  

Timothy J.N Smith – Member, NSERC Regional Offices' Advisory Committee  

 This is an update on the case posted earlier involving Timothy JN Smith, a member of the NSERC' Advisory Committee in Ontario. 

Earlier we reported a retraction for Timothy JN Smith in Annals of NY. Acad. Sciences: 

Reginald W. Smith, Xiaohe Zhu, Mark C. Tunnicliffe, Timothy J. N. Smith, Lowell Misener, and Josee Adamson. 2002. The Influence of Gravity on the Precise Measurement of Solute Diffusion Coefficients in Dilute Liquid Metals and Metalloids. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 974: 57–67.  

We have now more on this to report:

This paper was retracted primarily due to duplication. It was copied from a single- author paper published in Microgravity Science &Technology in 1998. We have now found out that in fact Timothy Smith was not a contributing author in the original paper published in 1998. So, the case appears to do with bogus authorship. It looks like Timothy JN Smith was simply added to the Annals paper in 2002 by RW Smith. This is yet another example of bogus authorship where individuals are added as co-authors to previously published papers in order to inflate publication productivity. Was the financial interest in Millenium Biologix a factor in this? We don’t know yet exactly how NSERC selects individuals to serve on NSERC’s advisory committees, but according to Barbara Muir, NSERC Director for the research partnerships and regional development; “Potential candidates, who are willing to be considered, are asked to provide NSERC with a copy of their CV”

More cases of publication overlaps, involving Timothy JN Smith has come to light as a result of a search conducted by ASM International.  This led ASM to include a note on its website advising potential customers that some of the papers in the CD-ROM were published in other sources.

 posted: August 31, 2012

Reginald W Smith and WBF MacKay, Queens University

Queens stands idly by whileReginald W Smith and WBF MacKay take the previously published work of a former graduate student and republish the same work under their names in Canadian Metallurgical Quarterly without informing the student. More on this story: here. See what the former student says.

What kind of message is Queens sending to students about academic integrity?

How can Queen's give advice to students abut academic integrity?

For more on academic integrity in Canadian Universities, visit http://www.degradingmcgill.

Posted: August 19, 2012

Mahi Sahoo& Reginald W Smith

Annals of NY Academy of Sciences- Queen's & CANMET - Officially Retracted

AFS Transaction 02-110, pp. 515-524: Lukman, A.; Smith, R. W.; Sahoo, M. (2002) (Queen's University & CANMET) - Duplicate paper

Project supported by NASA/AFS Solidification Design Control Consortium (SDCC) through Auburn University.

Posted: August 17, 2012

The Relationship Between Research Misconduct and Insider Trading

We have found some striking similarities between what Smith's lawyer, Clark says about his clients duplicate papers and what Millenium Biolgix says about insider trading.

In Ottawa Citizen, Clark says that Smith mistakenly submitted the same article to the European journal, thinking Canadian Metallurgical Quarterly had rejected it. He says that it was never Smiths intention to have the paper published in both journals.

In the article by CanWest News Service, Millenium Biologix says that Smith unintentionally failed to file insider reports as required and also failed to update

information in earlier filings.

Clark is apparently unaware of more than 22 duplicated papers with bogus authorship by Smith (eight officially retracted). Interestingly, we have found out that the two papers that Clark talks about had different authors. That explains why papers were submitted to two different journals intentionally. See more about this here.

Posted: August 16,2012

University of Victoria - Herringet al.

Mat. Res. Soc. Symposium, Herring et al.

J. Japan Microgravity Appl. Herring et al.

Acta Astronautica, Tryggvason B.V.; Redden R.F.; Herring R.A.;Duval W.M.B.; Smith R.W.; Rezkallah K.S.; Varma S.

This is an update on the case below related to the University of Victoria.

We have been privately communicating with Dr. Herring (the first author) since March 15, 2006 asking him scientific questions about his conclusions in the above papers and urging him to correct the research record as the first author. These papers contain significant data that are falsified and fabricated, or as they say in private e-mails, have been"cleaned-up"

We also brought the problem to the Dean Of Engineering at UVic in 2010 (more than once) and asked him to investigate the allegations according to the established procedures.

As mentioned earlier, one the objective of this website is to demonstrate how ineffective the system is in correcting the scientific record.

posted: August 16, 2012

  Rodney Herring, University of Victoria

Mat. Res. Soc. Symposium, Herring et al.

J. Japan Microgravity Appl. Herring et al.

Acta Astronautica ,Tryggvason B.V.; Redden R.F.; Herring R.A.;Duval W.M.B.; Smith R.W.; Rezkallah K.S.; Varma S.  

The above articles contain significant data that are fabricated.

Fabricated data are related to the space experiments that were funded for many years by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The goal was to show that Canada can make extraordinary contributions to space research. The researchers involved in the project made up the data and came up with some extraordinary results to satisfy the politically driven objectives, claiming that diffusion coefficients for molten metals and semiconductors vary linearly with temperature if g-jitter is suppressed in space flights. For years, the results were promoted in multiple duplicated articles and a huge number of conference presentations, including those published and presented by Herring and colleagues.

Herring states that he was "forced to publish". Who in the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) forced Herring to publish similar papers with fabricated and falsified data? Canadian Space Agency that funded the project and UVic, Herrings current employer, are both tight-lipped about the case.

Herring may have been "forced to publish" but there is no excuse to mislead the scientific community any longer.

Posted: August 13, 2012

University of Victoria- Data Fabrication & Falsification

Letter sent to Dr. Turpin, President, U of Victoria

August 4, 2012

Reginald W Smith, Queen's University-

Serious experimental problems encountered on MIR were not disclosed to journal editors - Data is fabricated and falsified to make it fit the hypothesis.

Conflict of interest was not disclosed to journals.

Timothy J.N Smith Member, NSERC Regional Offices' Advisory Committee(QUELD II furnace made by Millenium Biologix)

The following article co-authored by Timothy J.N Smith has been officially retracted:

Reginald W. Smith, Xiaohe Zhu, Mark C. Tunnicliffe, Timothy J. N. Smith, Lowell Misener, and Josee Adamson. 2002. The Influence of Gravity on the Precise Measurement of Solute Diffusion Coefficients in Dilute Liquid Metals and Metalloids. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 974: 5767.

Altogether, four papersby RW Smith et al are now officially retracted from the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Serious experimental problems associated with QUELD II furnace were not disclosed to journal editors due to conflict of interest- Data is fabricated and falsified to make it fit the hypothesis.

The furnace used in the space research was made in collaboration with Millenium Bilogix. It turns out that Reginald W Smith and Timothy J.N. Smith did not disclose to the journal that they had financial interest in Millenium Biologix.

We have asked NSERC about the process and criteria that they use for selecting members for the regional advisory committees. We will update with anything we learn.

More than 22 duplicated papers by RW Smith et al., Queen's University; retraction movie

Examples of duplicated text and re-use of old graphs and tables (short movie)

RW Smith, Queen's University- Fraud involving NSERC funds

Professor S.S Sadhal (conference chair) asks the editorial office at NYAS "to expunge" papers submitted by R.W. Smith (published in Microgravity Transport Processes In Fluid, Thermal, Biological... (ISBN: 9781573314237). Read the rest of this entry here.

Queen's should convene a panel to review the award of an MSc degree to a former student. Paper based on the MSc thesis is officially retracted.

Read the rest of the entry here.

More coming soon....

University of VICTORIA & Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Mat. Res. Soc. Symp., Herring et al.-Data reported in numerous similar papers isfabricated and falsifiedto make it fit the hypothesis.

What is wrong with the publishing system?