In a significant breach of research integrity, a psychologist at the Universidad de Las Américas in Chile discovered her identity had been misappropriated by a journal in which she had no involvement. Maryam Farhang, an associate research professor specializing in disability and technology, identified a paper bearing her name and affiliation within the Journal of Research in Allied Life Sciences (JRALS) while reviewing her professional records.
Farhang confirmed that she did not contribute to the manuscript, nor did she authorize the use of her credentials. The incident highlights a growing concern regarding identity theft and “gift” authorship in the academic community, where researchers find their reputations linked to work they have neither written nor vetted.
Journal Response and Internal Investigation
Following a formal inquiry by Farhang, an associate editor at JRALS, characterized the inclusion of her name as a clerical error. The publication, which is issued by Swami Vivekananda University, subsequently removed the article from its digital archives.
In correspondence regarding the matter, the journal’s editorial leadership offered an apology, citing a “misunderstanding” that led to the mistaken attribution. While the JRALS ethics statement asserts a commitment to the highest standards of publication practice, the presence of placeholder text such as “insert pages” and “conference name”within the published references of the disputed paper has raised further questions regarding the rigor of the journal’s editorial oversight.
Implications for Research Integrity
The case underscores the persistent challenges scholarly publishers face in verifying author identities, particularly as high-volume and automated publishing environments become more common. Although the article is no longer available on the official journal website, digital footprints often remain on third-party repositories like ResearchGate or Google Scholar, complicating the process of fully scrubbing inaccurate academic records.
For the academic community, this incident serves as a reminder of the need for:
- Stricter Identity Verification: Implementing ORCID requirements or multi-factor authentication for all listed co-authors during the submission phase.
- Enhanced Editorial Vetting: Ensuring that peer review processes catch technical errors, such as placeholder text, which may signal larger integrity issues.
- Researcher Vigilance: The importance of scholars regularly monitoring DOI records and indexing databases to ensure their names are not being utilized without consent.