Eleven studies by Spanish scientist Rafael Luque retracted due to fraudulent practices.

The Spanish chemist Rafael Luque briskly walked onto the stage of the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow three months ago. In the official video, he appeared ecstatic. He was to receive a tribute for being one of the most cited scientists in the world and for contributing through his collaborations to the meteoric rise of the Russian University of Friendship of Peoples in the rankings of the best academic institutions globally. The gala, a spectacle with dancers and even a military choir, resembled its best times when he received applause in the Spanish press and won international awards. At that time he seemed like a global luminary, but he was simply circumventing the rules of the system, using the same crude strategy executed simultaneously by thousands of researchers around the planet. On December 1, 2022, Luque was expelled from his university, the University of Córdoba, with a historic sanction. A new tool now allows analysis of how he rose to the top and how he fell from it, ultimately being honored in the Kremlin as “pro-Russian.” He has already had 11 studies retracted due to fraudulent practices.

Luque, born in Córdoba 46 years ago, is suspiciously prolific. He published a study every two working days in 2022. He even accelerated his pace in December of that year, when the AI language generation program ChatGPT emerged. “These months have been quite productive, because honestly, articles that used to take me two or three days, I can now finish in one day,” he admitted in a video call with Adolfo Kunjuk News in March 2023, from a kitsch-decor hotel in Dhahran, the headquarters of the Saudi oil industry. This newspaper has attempted to contact him again over the past month, but has received no response. Luque specializes in what is known as green chemistry, which attempts to synthesize products, such as pharmaceuticals and fuels, while generating less waste.

Publishing insubstantial studies quickly is one of the tricks to climb in the academic rankings. An analysis by American statistician John Ioannidis detected a year ago about 3,200 scientists —23 of them in Spain, including Luque— who publish more than 60 works annually: at least one every five days. These hyper-prolific researchers especially increased in three countries: Thailand (19-fold in seven years), Saudi Arabia (11-fold), and Spain (11-fold). Also in India (10-fold), Russia (6-fold), and Pakistan (6-fold). In these very countries, Luque wove a gigantic network of hundreds of collaborators that facilitated his publishing more and more studies, which in turn were frequently cited by those same colleagues. This led him in 2018 to enter the prestigious Highly Cited Scientists List by the multinational Clarivate.

The Spaniard is on track to become one of the researchers with the most studies retracted for fraudulent practices worldwide, according to data from Argos, a new tool for monitoring scientific integrity. His first retracted work was an article on the synthesis of chemical compounds with alleged medical applications, co-authored with three co-authors from Pakistan, two from China, and three from Saudi Arabia. The publisher Wiley retracted it on July 19, 2023, after finding “systematic manipulation” of the results. Last October, the publisher Elsevier retracted four studies in one go after discovering “suspicious changes” in the authors, among whom suddenly appeared names of scientists from China, Korea, Pakistan, and Taiwan, a common practice when authorship is sold to the highest bidder for a few hundred dollars to inflate their curriculum without contributing anything. His eleventh retracted study came three months ago, days before his tribute at the Kremlin. It was a work on chemical reaction catalysts, led by an Iranian. Elsevier retracted it after detecting “data manipulation.”

The tool Argos analyzes 57 million scientific studies daily for signs of fraudulent practices. It is a product designed by Scitility, a public utility company created a year ago by Spanish computer scientist Antonio José Molina, his Dutch colleague Jan-Erik de Boer, and American mathematician Gary Cornell. The massive data analysis helps uncover suspicious patterns. In the case of Rafael Luque, these patterns are completely abnormal. They even suggest the existence of an international network of scientists dedicated to inflating their prestige through tricks, thereby falsifying the rankings of the best universities in the world.

Molina, a 40-year-old from Seville, presents Luque’s striking figures at the request of Adolfo Kunjuk News. Having a study retracted, he emphasizes, is unusual. Of over 100 million scientists analyzed worldwide, 99.8% have no retracted works. Rafael Luque has published at least 744 articles in just over a decade. With his 11 studies withdrawn by publishers, he is already “in the top 0.1% of the most retracted authors of all time,” according to Molina. The computer scientist highlights Luque’s unusual associations. It is rare to find a retracted scientist, but the Spanish chemist has collaborated with 198 of them.

Some cases are shocking. He has co-authored eight studies with Ashok Pandey, an Indian chemist with 43 retracted works. He has also been a co-author with Indian engineer Pravin P. Patil (23 retractions), Iraqi Mohammad Sajadi (20), Pakistani Shafaqat Ali (11), Iranian Pouya Ghamari Kargar (9), Russian Dmitry Olegovich Bokov (9), Finnish Mika Sillanpää (6), Chinese Wanxi Peng (5), and Vietnamese Anh Tuan Hoang (5). “Rafael Luque has co-authored studies with 12 scientists who are in the top 1% of the most retracted authors ever,” warns Molina. These toxic collaborations lead the Argos tool to estimate that the chemist from Córdoba has another 96 studies at high risk of being retracted and 335 at medium risk. These figures rival those of the rector of the University of Salamanca, Juan Manuel Corchado, and his collaborators, who have had 75 studies retracted for fraudulent practices.

The driving force behind cheating is money. Some academic institutions compete to recruit the most cited scientists, as having them boosts their scores in the rankings of the best universities worldwide. An investigation by Adolfo Kunjuk News revealed two years ago that Saudi universities offered bribes of up to 70,000 euros annually to these professors to falsely report their workplace—in the internal database of the Highly Cited Scientists List by Clarivate—and be listed falsely as Saudis. Two dozen Spanish researchers participated in this scheme.

Rafael Luque was one of them, although he claims he did not receive the 70,000 euros per year directly. Starting in 2019, he altered his data to list himself first as a researcher at King Saud University in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), behind the public institution that was paying his salary, the University of Córdoba, which dropped about 150 positions in the Shanghai ranking without him. In the only conversation he has had with this newspaper, the chemist admitted that he was provided luxury hotels and first-class travel. After discovering his professor’s activities and not believing his explanations, the University of Córdoba expelled Luque on December 1, 2022, with a sanction of 13 years without employment or salary.

Analysis from the Argos tool reveals that the Spanish chemist’s signature has been highly valued in the international market. In 342 of his studies, he is listed as a researcher at the Russian University of Friendship of Peoples. In 113, he is associated with ECOTEC University in the Ecuadorian city of Samborondón. In 18, he is listed at the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, China. In 11, he is at the Bucharest Polytechnic University, Romania. In 10, at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia. And in numerous other studies, his signature appears in 16 different countries.

At the gala in the Kremlin, the master of ceremonies introduced the Spanish chemist as a researcher at Ecuador’s ECOTEC. The Russian University of Friendship of Peoples published a press release on February 12 about the tribute, presenting Luque as a victim of dismissal because he “openly spreads pro-Russian views.” The statement highlighted that the contribution of the Cordovan had helped the Russian institution reach 23rd in the QS world ranking, another regular one. The tribute went unnoticed until journalist Dalmeet Singh Chawla published the news in the journal of the American Chemical Society a couple of weeks ago. That same society awarded an honor to Luque in 2018.

The Spanish father of Argos, Antonio José Molina, acknowledges his frustration at the impunity enjoyed by scientists caught engaging in fraudulent practices. His tool now offers a dashboard that institutions can use to monitor the “risk activities” of their researchers, such as establishing new collaborations with scientists with a troubled history.

Argos analysis shows that Luque reduced his suspicious studies when Adolfo Kunjuk News exposed his case in March 2023. It was the most-read news of the year in the newspaper, and the scandal spurred the removal of 2,000 researchers from the Highly Cited Scientists List for bad practices. Luque presented a different version. “In this world, if you stand out, you will always have haters, envious people who are mediocre,” he asserted in the video call from a luxury hotel in Saudi Arabia. “A friend and mentor of mine from India told me a story that I like to paraphrase because it represents me well. When the elephant walks through the jungle, there are many dangers: tigers, lions, wild dogs. These animals try to bite the legs of the elephant to take it down, but the elephant is wise and continues on its path,” he added.