Scientists involved in plagiarism and unethical research

Dear Sir, Here I am attaching the few papers by R R Shahi and O N Srivastava (Banaras Hindu University Uttar Pradesh India) which appeared recently in peer reviewed international journals. During reading of these articles, I came to know that these articles contain the images of previously published articles of the same group which is the clear cut copyright act. These images are merely the cut paste with a little bit modification. This is not only the violation of ethics and values in research but is plagiarism also. List is given with this email in form of a table at the end with few of them. This act of such a group which is well reputed for research on hydrogen storage brings shame not only for their group and institution but for nation and whole science community as well. These articles are not merely contain reproduction of images copied from other sources, artifacts but are seems to be manipulated results based on predetermined mindset. Few things which I found doubtful also contain several points which mainly include:

1. The materials used by R R Shahi and O N Srivastava are highly reactive to ambient yet they were able to get Scanning and Transmission electron microscopy. It was even more surprising that they were able to get not only microstructure but diffraction pattern also from parent material. The people working in this field know very well that this is not possible. In process of mounting the sample in the microscope it get exposure to ambient and so get oxidize completely.
2. The XRD of these materials are also tempered.

There are several more doubtful results and images in these articles. I am actually surprised and shocked that how a Professor who is so well reputed for his research not in the country but internationally commits such kind of frauds. While discussing with one of my colleague on this matter I came to know that he had done such types of frauds it in past also which contains the higher wt% reported in carbon based materials and publication of same article (B K Gupta et al. Who is a scientist in NPL now) in two different international journals. However later one journal cancelled the paper. Being a person from scientific community and India, I am feeling really shame for an act of such a professor. In light of the above and being eminent scientists I request you all please request government of India to completely ban these persons not only doing such kind of frauds but a criminal case against them should be filled immediately. They are not only playing with the sentiments of the people which expect a lot from such scientists but spending the money of Government (money of peoples earned hardly) meaninglessly. I request you all also to please request to Visitor, Chancellor, Vice Chancellor and all other officials of the university and all other scientific bodies to take immediate action against him. I hope that a proper action will be taken to set an standard so that no other can do such type of frauds in future. I hope all of you spread this message to nation wide and appropriate authorities also so that peoples in science can be demoralized to do frauds and defame our country.

Thanking You,

With warm wishes,

Yadvendra

Table

S. No.	Source	Copied From
1.	Fig 1(a) of Shahi JPHysChem Sol 2013 DOI:10.1016/j.jpcs.2013.06.015	This image is copy of Image 1 (a) of Shahi et al. IJHE 38, 8863-71 (2013) as shown in attached Shahi IHJE 2013 Paper (DOI:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2013.05.011).
2.	Fig 1(b) of Shahi JPHysChem Sol 2013 DOI:10.1016/j.jpcs.2013.06.015	This image may be a copy of image from somewhere else as obvious from double lable on the image.
3.	Fig 1(c) of Shahi JPHysChem Sol 2013 DOI:10.1016/j.jpcs.2013.06.015	This image is copy of Image 1 (a) of Hudson et al. IJHE 37 (3), 2750-2755(2012) as shown in attached Hudson paper (DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2011.03.006).
4.	Fig 1(d) of Shahi JPHysChem Sol 2013 DOI:10.1016/j.jpcs.2013.06.015	This image is copy of Image 1 (b) of Hudson et al. IJHE 37 (3), 2750-2755(2012) as shown in attached Hudson paper (DOI:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2011.03.006).
5.	Fig 6(a) of Shahi JPHysChem Sol 2013 DOI:10.1016/j.jpcs.2013.06.	This image is the inverted Image of the Fig 9 (a) Shahi et al IJHE 38, 8863-8871, 2013 (DOI:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2013.05.011). However material is different in one case it is mixture of Mg(NH2)2/LiH mixture with MWCNT and in another case it is MgH2 mixture with MWCNT .
6.	Fig 7 (a) of Shahi JPHysChem Sol 2013 DOI:10.1016/j.jpcs.2013.06.015	These images is copy of Image 9 (b) of shahi et al. IJHE 37, 3705-11 (2012) with 180 degree rotation shown in attached Shahi IJHE 2012 paper (DOI:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2011.04.103).
7.	Fig 7 (a) of Shahi JPHysChem Sol 2013 DOI:10.1016/j.jpcs.2013.06.015	These images is copy of Image 9 (a) of shahi et al. IJHE 37, 3705-11 (2012) with 180 degree rotation shown in attached Shahi IJHE 2012 paper (DOI:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2011.04.103).
8.	Fig. 1 (d) of Shahi IJHE 2013 DOI:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2013.05.011	This image is copy of Image 1 (b) of Hudson et al. IJHE 37 (3), 2750-2755(2012) as shown in attached Hudson paper (DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2011.03.006).
9.	Fig 1 (a) of Shahi IJHE 2012 DOI:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2011.04.103	This image is copy of Image 2 (a) of Shahi et al. Applied Nanoscinece 2, 195-201 (2012) as shown in attached Shahi paper (DOI: 10.1007/s13204-012-0083-y).
10.	Fig 1 (b) of Shahi IJHE 2012 DOI:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2011.04.103	This image is copy of Image 1 (b) of Hudson et al. IJHE 37 (3), 2750-2755(2012) as shown in attached Hudson paper (DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2011.03.006).

 

from

Y P Thakur  

ypthakur01@gmail.com