Alleged Mind Surgeon Squats on Domains, Punks Journals

We now dangle a confession perfect up entrance: You acquired’t meet the man — a man who claims to be a brain surgeon, no much less — we discuss over with within the headline.

That is on memoir of, dear reader, we dangle been no longer in a effect of residing to contact the one who publishes under the title Michael George Zaki Ghali.

What we construct know is that somebody utilizing Ghali’s title sold two wrong web domains for the Karolinska Institutet to originate it peek as though he turned into affiliated with the arena-authorized medical heart and printed seven dozen papers in sight reviewed journals owned by Elsevier, IMR Press, Taylor & Francis and Wiley. To this level, seven these articles dangle now been retracted, by our depend, at the side of recently a 2020 paper in Acta Cardiologica that integrated CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer as a co-author.

The paper, “ Two dimensional speckle monitoring echocardiography detects cardiac allograft stage III vasculopathy in recipients of heart transplants with preserved systolic characteristic,” doesn’t precisely sound worship something the host of the Tell Room With Wolf Blitzer would write. With all due admire to Blitzer, he will not be any longer a cardiologist.

The article, which turned into retracted earlier this week, does no longer appear to dangle garnered CNN-worship ratings, having been cited most attention-grabbing twice, basically basically based completely on Clarivate Analytics’ Internet of Science. Within the paper, Ghali claims affiliations on the Karolinska, in Stockholm, the College of California, San Francisco, and the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix. (Blitzer, the senior author, is listed merely as being at “CNN Headquarters,” something that seems to dangle escaped the consciousness of the editor and publisher.)

Primarily basically based on the retraction note:

We, the Editors and Publisher of Acta Cardiologica, dangle retracted on this article:

Michael George Zaki Ghali, Rebecca Stewart, George Zaki Ghali & Wolf Blitzer (2020) Two dimensional speckle monitoring echocardiography detects cardiac allograft stage III vasculopathy in recipients of heart transplants with preserved systolic characteristic, Acta Cardiologica, DOI: 10.1080/00015385.2020.1800963

Since publication, we dangle now acquired affirmation from the Karolinska Instituet that the corresponding author will not be any longer and has no longer been affiliated with their institution. The Karolinska Instituet is listed within the above article as having offered funding and ethical recognition of the reported glimpse. We now dangle also reached out to the listed co-authors nonetheless dangle no longer been in a effect of residing to check their authorship of the article. We now dangle contacted the corresponding author for an clarification, nonetheless we dangle now no longer acquired a response. As precisely pointing out the authorship, affiliated institution, ethics approval and the provision of funding is core to the integrity of printed work, we are which capability that of this reality retracting the article. The corresponding author listed on this publication has been knowledgeable.

We now dangle been knowledgeable in our decision-making by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE pointers on retractions.

The retracted article will reside on-line to defend the scholarly memoir, nonetheless it absolutely will be digitally watermarked on every web bid as ‘Retracted’.

We asked Elaine Devine, the digital communications director for Taylor & Francis, about the article, and he or she offered the following assertion from the publisher:

Right here’s half of an investigation into six papers and is on-going. After being contacted by one co-author, we dangle now investigated the validity of the warranties given at some stage within the publication route of, specifically eager about authorship, affiliated institution, ethics approval and funding (as outlined within the retraction notices). The effect the requested evidence has no longer been offered to validate the pre-publication warranties given by the lead author, we dangle now moved ahead with retracting the paper in request (as these are core to the integrity of any printed paper). We are able to continue to work on this until the warranties given on all papers would possibly well presumably also honest moreover be substantiated.

It turns available within the market is extra to the Karolinska epic. Ghali has twice been ordered to flip over domains linked to Karolinska the genuine institute, once in June 2020 and but again in November 2020. In one decision, Miguel B. O’Farrell, a panelist for the World Psychological Property Organization, wrote:

The Panel finds that the Respondent has registered and feeble the disputed domain title intentionally to strive to procedure – for the choices of the Respondent’s have expert self-promotion (stare Karolinska Institutet v. Michael Ghali, supra) and commercial create – Knowledge superhighway customers to its online web bid by rising a probability of bewilderment with the Complainant’s ticket as to the provision, sponsorship, affiliation, or endorsement. This amounts to inappropriate religion under paragraph 4(b)(iv) of the Coverage. The reality that disputed domain title does no longer for the time being unravel to any online web bid does no longer prevent a finding of inappropriate religion.

Ghali, who didn’t answer to a ask of for comment, has 84 papers to his title, basically basically based completely on Clarivate Analytics. Amongst these which dangle been retracted so some distance are two papers in Experimental Physiology, one in all which, from 2019, lists his affiliation as Drexel College in Philadelphia and the opposite, from 2020, which states that he has ties to the KI, Barrow, UCSF, the College of Oslo, in Norway, and the College of Helsinki, in Finland.

Earlier this week, the World Journal of Neuroscience — any other T&F title — retracted a 2021 article by Ghali and a “George Zaki Ghali” with the following note:

Since publication, we dangle now acquired affirmation from College of California, San Francisco that the corresponding author will not be any longer and has no longer been affiliated with their institution. The College of California, San Francisco is listed within the above article as having offered funding and ethical recognition of the reported glimpse. We now dangle contacted the corresponding author for an clarification, nonetheless we dangle now no longer acquired a response. As precisely pointing out the affiliated institution, ethics approval and the provision of funding is core to the integrity of printed work, we are which capability that of this reality retracting the article. The corresponding author listed on this publication has been knowledgeable.

Curiously, the PubMed entry for this paper, which no longer appears to be like an active link, be taught:

Assertion of Retraction: Effects of isoflurane on arterial blood stress, heart rate, and phrenic nerve discharge within the decerebrate rat Heinrich Meier What Is Nietzsche’s Zarathustra? A Philosophical War of phrases . Translated by Justin Gottschalk . Chicago, IL : College of Chicago Press , 2021 , 194 pp. + viii, $50, ISBN: 9780226581569

A philosophical struggle of phrases indeed — and even extra evidence that there are an unpleasant lot of ghosts within the machine of scientific publishing.

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