On June 27, the international academic journal "Construction and Building Materials" (Construction and Building Materials) withdrew a research paper by a fictitious author.

Eight papers from the School of Environmental and Civil Engineering of Jiangnan University were withdrawn for fabricating a researcher from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore as the author.

On June 27, 2023, the international academic journal "Construction and Building Materials" (Construction and Building Materials) issued a retraction statement online, saying that it had received a research paper from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore because it had fabricated a signed author who did not actually exist. Following a complaint from the Integrity Unit, the editorial board has retracted the journal's online May 5, 2022 paper "Ultra-high performance engineered cementitious composites (UHP) -ECC) Shrinkage and tensile properties of ultra-high-performance engineered cementitious composites (UHP-ECC) containing superabsorbent polymers (SAP) and united expansion agent (UEA)).

The corresponding author of the paper involved is Zhang Cong, an associate professor at the School of Environmental and Civil Engineering, Jiangnan University, located in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.

On July 3, the staff of the relevant departments of the School of Environment and Civil Engineering of Jiangnan University stated that Zhang Cong had resigned.

Relevant staff from the Propaganda Department of the Party Committee of Jiangnan University told The Paper that the incident is still under investigation and refused to disclose more information.

It is worth noting that as of June 27, 2023, 3 international academic journals have withdrawn 8 papers with exactly the same retraction statement. The corresponding authors of the papers involved are all Zhang Cong, and their signature unit is the School of Environment and Civil Engineering of Jiangnan University.

At present, Zhang Cong's personal information has been deleted from the "Faculty Team" column of the official website of the School of Environmental and Civil Engineering of Jiangnan University. Other information on the webpage shows that Zhang Cong used to be a young teacher of the college, and his research direction was green energy-saving prefabricated buildings.

Zhang Cong's paper published in the journal "Journal of Composite Materials" in 2019 marked his personal information as "doctor, associate professor, master tutor".

The retraction statements of the aforementioned 8 papers are all, "At the request of the editor-in-chief, the paper involved has been withdrawn. After a complaint filed by the Research Integrity Office of Nanyang Technological University (NTU), it was determined after investigation that the co-signed author of the paper involved 'Toshiyuki Bangi' is fictitious; the name and its affiliation were added to the paper by the corresponding author. Nanyang Technological University has nothing to do with this deception and the aforementioned fictitious author was assigned a hotmail.com email address."

"Manipulating authorship is a serious breach of publishing ethics that distorts the research record and calls into question every aspect of the research work involved."

"The corresponding author has acknowledged this deception and understands the need for the retraction."

In addition, the above-mentioned 8 papers all stated in their acknowledgments that the relevant research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51908247) and the Open Project of Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Environmental Disaster and Structural Reliability in Civil Engineering (KFJJ202007).

The relevant webpage of the National Natural Science Foundation of China shows that in 2019, Jiangnan University, as the supporting unit, and Zhang Cong, as the project leader, received a subsidy of 250,000 yuan. Regulatory Studies".

Withdrawal link:

1. Retraction notice to “Influence of eco-friendly fine aggregate on macroscopic properties, microstructure and durability of ultra-high performance concrete: A review” [J. Build. Eng. 65 (2023) 105783]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352710223009294

2. Retraction notice to “Effect of CaCO3 whiskers on tensile properties of ultra-high-performance engineered cementitious composites” [J. Build. Eng. 57 (2022) 104896]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352710223009312

3. Retraction notice to “Experimental study and theoretical modeling for the flexible property of multi-scale hybrid fiber reinforced SHCC” [Case Stud. Constr. Mater. 16 (2022) e1083]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214509523004126

4. Retraction notice to “Shrinkage and tensile properties of ultra-high-performance engineered cementitious composites (UHP-ECC) containing superabsorbent polymers (SAP) and united expansion agent (UEA)” [Constr. Build. Mater. 339 (2022) 12769 7 ]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950061823019499

5. Retraction notice to “Mechanical properties, durability and application of ultra-high-performance concrete containing coarse aggregate (UHPC-CA): A review” [Constr. Build. Mater. 334 (2022) 127360]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950061823019475

6. Retraction notice to “Investigation of SAP content on the shrinkage and tensile properties of ultra-high performance concrete” [Constr. Build. Mater. 345 (2022) 128402]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950061823019529

7. Retraction notice to 'Design approach, mechanical properties and cost-performance evaluation of ultra-high performance engineered cementitious composite (UHP-ECC): A review' [Construct. Build. Mater. 340 (2022) 127734]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950061823019505

8. Retraction notice to “Evaluation of pseudo-strain hardening behavior of hybrid fiber reinforced ultra-high performance concrete containing coarse aggregates by using micromechanical principles” [J. Build. Eng. 61 (2022) 105234]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352710223009300