30. Optimization of production technology of pea (Pisum sativum L.) enriched plant growth Rhizobacteria

Abstract

On the request of Dr. Khurram Ziaf, whose work was published without his consent and getting a confirmation from Mr. Adil Khan as shown in the below emails, the Editor has retracted the research article entitled “Optimization of production technology of pea (Pisum sativum L.) enriched plant growth Rhizobacteria”. Which was published in the March-2019, Pure Appl. Biol., 8(1): 278-287, http://dx.doi.org/10.19045/bspab.2018.700186.

The reason of the retraction was based on the violation of the PAB Publication Ethics Statement by authors. The authors were also banned for submission and publication in the PAB for three years.

1. Email Received from Dr. Khurram Ziaf: ([email protected])

Dear Editor

Greetings.

Hope you will be fine.

I read one paper published in your esteemed journal PAB. Title of paper is "Optimization of production technology of pea (Pisum sativum L.) enriched plant growth Rhizobacteria" published in Pure Appl. Biol., 8(1): 278-287, March, 2019. 

This paper has been published from thesis data of my student, rather it (results particularly) has been as such copied and published in this paper. My student Asmat Ullah ([email protected]) submitted thesis in controller examinations office vide number is CE/2707, dated 17-08-2016. PDF of title and signature page, materials and methods (some pages) and results and discussion (all pages) has been given in the attached file (named as thesis). From this file (thesis) you can see that all results has been copied and pasted to write this paper. This is cheating or theft of research data that is against scientific ethics. Therefore, I request you to cancel this paper as well as inform HEC to include these authors in black list. They have copied everything and mentioned that research has been conducted in Delma Island United Arab Emirates. I have highlighted some text from paper and the same in thesis, particularly results and discussion.

I wonder how they escaped from similarity index which should be very high because they have copied maximum part of the thesis text.

Moreover, they have not taken permission even from my student Asmat Ullah (Who is included in CC of this email).

These two authors, i.e. Adil Khan and Waqar Karim has previously tried to publish research work from their lab without permission of their supervisory committee including Dr. Muhammad Muzammil Jahangir (Who is included in CC of this email).

Kindly take necessary action and also remove this paper from website of journal and also remove its DOI.

You can take proof from director office of our institute ([email protected]) or controller examination of "University of Agriculture Faisalabad", both are included in CC of this email.

Kind Regards

Khurram Ziaf (Ph.D.)

Associate Professor

Institute of Horticultural Sciences

University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan

Email: [email protected], [email protected]

Mobile: +92-334-6633576

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8617-4276

2. Reply Received from Mr. Adil Khan ([email protected]):

Respected Dr. Muhammed Din!

It's a pleasure connecting with you again, with reference to your email I am shocked to know that how could the results shows resemblance to thesis of student, as currently i am working in UAE as an Agriculture Engineer we are working on different projects, but Dr. Khurram Ziaf was one of my favorite teachers, I learned a lot from them. If my teacher demands removal of paper material from journal, I don't have any issue, if possible, remove the paper from Journal website.

I have published several papers in different journals especially PAB and this appalling happens first time.

Furthermore, as per Dr. Khurram Ziaf that Adil and Waqar have published paper from their lab without supervisor committee approval, I’m sorry but I disagree to it. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thank you.

Kind Regards,

Adil Khan