We, the Editors and Publisher of the journal Materials Science and Technology have retracted the following article:
Qiaoyu Pan, Xinping Yu & Fujin Yu (2023) Creep and mechanical properties of aluminium A356 composites reinforced with coated and un-coated MWCNTs fabricated using the stir casting method, Materials Science and Technology, 39:9, 1100–1112, DOI: 10.1080/02670836.2022.2160532
Following publication, concerns were raised by a third party about the integrity of the data in this article. The journal and the publisher investigated and found substantial concerns with the following:
The source of the data
Similarities with an unpublished article from a separate, third-party institute
The authorship of this article
When approached for an explanation, the authors confirmed there was a potential overlap with another unpublished work at their institution, which used the same material and tensile test. The authors were unable to adequately address our concerns.
Furthermore, upon review, the authors have uncovered substantial errors in their data which would invalidate the findings and conclusions of their paper. As a result of these data errors, the authors have requested retraction.
As verifying the validity of published work is core to the integrity of the scholarly record, the Editors and Publisher are therefore retracting the article.
Whilst the authors requested retraction on the basis of errors in the data, they do not agree with the additional grounds for retraction.
We have been informed in our decision-making by our editorial policies and the COPE guidelines.
The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as ‘Retracted’.