Data Issues on Articles by Zhang YF et. al.
A recent investigation raises concerns regarding data on multiple articles co-authored by ZHANG Yifeng (张翼峰), with Technical University of Denmark.
Twenty-five articles with common coauthors of ZHANG Yifeng and ZOU Rusen, and published on Elsevier journals were included in the investigation. Concerns on the data, including but not limited to asymmetrical error bars, hidden data points, and broken spectra, are raised on nine of them (about 36%). The reason of data manipulation can not be ruled out for such data issues.
10.1016/j.watres.2024.122065
Asymmetrical error bars are observed on Figure 7 of this article. Sometimes, the upper bar is thicker, while sometimes the lower bar is thicker. It remains unknown if these asymmetrical error bars were caused by the plotting software and/or the image process during publication, or they are resulted in data manipulation.
10.1016/j.seppur.2022.122372
Broken spectrum is observed on Figure 1e of this article, as marked with purple arrows.
10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.131554
Asymmetrical error bars are observed in Figure 1a, 2a, 2c, and others. Some error bars in those figures show upward displacement relative to the data points. It remains unclear what reason caused these displacement.
10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154543
Some hidden data points are observed in Figure 3b, 4b, 5b, 6b, 8a, and 8b of this article. One can find the hidden data points by enlarging the figure. Some examples are marked with red arrows. It remains unknown what the hidden data stands for.
10.1016/j.envint.2019.105352
Hidden data point is observed in Figure 10b of this article. After enlarging the figure, one can find a hidden data point (in gray colour) on the yellow line around "24 h", as marked with red arrow. It remains unknown what this data point stands for.
10.1016/j.apcatb.2021.121009
Broken spectrum is observed on Figure 1e of this article, as marked with purple arrows.
10.1016/j.watres.2024.121388
Asymmetrical error bars are observed on Figure 2a of this article, with thicker upper bars and thinner lower bars. It remains unknown if these unusual asymmetrical error bars were caused by improper plotting setting, or they were resulted in data manipulation.
10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.127151
Asymmetrical error bars are observed on Figure 2, 6 and 9 of this article. Some of the error bars have imbalance horizontal bars, with one side longer and the other side shorter, as shown with arrows. It seems unlikely these unusual asymmetrical error bars were caused by improper plotting setting, suggesting they were resulted in data manipulation.
10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.133626
Asymmetrical error bars are observed in Figure 1, and 2 of this article. Some error bars in those figures show upward displacement relative to the data points, while some show lower displacement. It remains unclear what reason caused these displacement.
