The University of Salamanca presented a brief report a week ago that exonerates its rector, Juan Manuel Corchadoa professor noted for becoming one of the most cited scientists in the world after citing himself thousands of timesreceive thousands of mentions of invented researchers and order his subordinates to cite him 20 times in each study. The Spanish Committee on Research Ethics, in a harsh statement approved on Tuesday, has unanimously rejected this exculpatory report, considering it “a missed opportunity” to clarify the situation.
Given the “alleged seriousness” of the events, the ethics committee urged the University of Salamanca in June to carry out an “exhaustive and independent” inspection of the practices of its own rector. The response was a 17-page report —commissioned by historian Salvador Rus Rufino, from the University of Valladolid— who even applauds Corchado’s relevance.
The ethics committee, an independent body The National Committee, created by the Government and the autonomous communities, has not accepted this version. Its 11 members stress that Rus Rufino’s report has not taken into account “substantial documentation” and has not even consulted the main sources of information handled by the national committee.
The Springer Nature publishing house has carried out its own investigation in parallel and has initiated an apparently massive retraction of studies by Juan Manuel Corchado’s group, after identifying “problems” related to “inappropriate or unusual citations and undeclared conflicts of interest,” according to the emails sent to at least a dozen of the rector’s co-authors, to which EL PAÍS has had access. The ethics committee underlines this paradox: “An indicator that the report [de Rus Rufino] has not addressed any major issues is the process of retraction of papers related to the case, launched by the publishing house Springer.”
For years, Corchado published a multitude of documents full of self-citations in the GREDOS scientific repository of his university, such as a single paragraph on intelligent buildings with 227 quotes to himself or four insubstantial paragraphs about covid with a hundred self-mentions. With these maneuvers he rose in different rankings international, of which he boastedThis newspaper asked him about this on March 12. The brief report by Rus Rufino does note that on March 12 and the following days Corchado asked the technical manager of the GREDOS repository to delete 147 of his documents and remove another 45, despite the fact that the rules do not allow the elimination of scientific publications.
This Committee understands that the University will take appropriate measures in response to these irregular practices.
Spanish Committee on Research Ethics
The ethics committee criticises the fact that the exculpatory report admits “the existence of irregular practices” in the university repository, but ignores Corchado’s motives and the content of the deleted documents. The experts launch a dart at the Salamanca institution. “This Committee understands that the University will take the appropriate measures in the face of these irregular practices,” says the scientific integrity body, made up of prestigious specialists, such as its president, Jordi Camidirector general of the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park; neuroscientist Rafael Yuste, from Columbia University (United States); Amparo Alonsoprofessor of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of A Coruña; and the biologist Pere Puigdomenechformer president of the Ethics Committee of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
The statement from the scientific integrity body calls for a genuine independent investigation into the rector, reiterating “the need for an exhaustive, impartial, transparent and procedural verification of facts that are very sensitive to the reputation not only of the University of Salamanca, but of the entire Spanish university and scientific system.” The final sentence is forceful: “For all these reasons, the Committee unanimously considers that the report submitted does not respond to the verifications requested.”
Corchado, despite the multiple evidence against him, has so far had the full support of local authorities. On May 31, at the ceremony of proclamation as rector, he received a one minute standing ovation in the legendary auditorium of the university, with the applause of the president of the Junta de Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, and the mayor of Salamanca, Carlos García Carbayo, both from the Popular Party. Corchado, with an annual budget of almost 290 million euroswants to build a new campus on the former Mercasalamanca grounds, with the support of the City Council and the Regional Government.
The Committee unanimously considers that the report submitted does not respond to the requested verifications.
Spanish Committee on Research Ethics
The city’s main newspaper, The Salamanca Gazettealso defends the rector. Julián Ballestero, director of the newspaper, published a column on September 12, suggesting a gigantic conspiracy against Corchado. “Someday we will know what is the reason for the hatred of Pedro Sánchez’s Government and its media outbursts against the rector of the University of Salamanca,” said Ballestero. “The truth is that Minister Diana Morant [el Ministerio de Ciencia instó al comité de ética a estudiar el caso] He has made a fool of himself by demanding an investigation into the rector’s publications, which has concluded what any scientist with a moderate amount of training knew in advance: that there is nothing objectionable on Corchado’s part and that the citations and self-citations are within the parameters of academic normality,” he added.
The facts have nothing to do with a mysterious political conspiracy. The American organization Retraction Watch, specialized in scientific fraud, revealed Corchado’s strange practices in March 2022. EL PAÍS has published documents with more than 200 self-citations and also internal messages that show that the researcher urged his subordinates to cite him dozens of times in each work. Faced with these tricks, the multinational Springer Nature has initiated a massive retraction of studies by Corchado’s group. The Confederation of Scientific Societies of Spain (COSCE), which represents 88 societies with 40,000 scientists, suggested on June 20 to call new elections for rector, since the reputation of the current one “is clearly and seriously called into question.”
Corchado’s response to date has been silence, despite the growing scandal. The Governing Council of the University of Salamanca, formed by 53 members and presided over in person by the rector himself, approved the exculpatory report of Rus Rufino on September 11 with a very large majority, despite the objections of the only three professors who voted against. After the support of the Governing Council, the local press asked Corchado if the matter was closed. “As far as I am concerned, of course it is. […] I gave the explanations to my colleagues, which is where I have to give them,” answered the rector.
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