Retracted: Corrosion Inhibition of Tubing Steel during Acidization of Oil and Gas Wells

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Journal of Petroleum Engineering has retracted the article titled “Corrosion Inhibition of Tubing Steel during Acidization of Oil and Gas Wells” [1]. The article was found to contain images reused in several other articles published by Mahendra Yadav and colleagues. The details of the reuse of images are as follows:

Figure 2 is similar to Figure 3 in [2], with a different figure key.

Figure 5 is similar to Figure 11 in [3] and Figure 6 in [2], with different figures keys.

Figure 7 is similar to Figure 1A in [4], with a different figure key.

Figure 4 is similar to Figure 4 in [5], with a different figure key.

Figure 11(a) is similar to Figure 14a in [2], Figure 5a in [4], Figure 11a in [5], and Figure 9a in [6]. Figure 11(b) is similar to Figure 14b in [2], Figure 17b in [3], Figure 5b in [4], and Figure 9b in [7]. Figure 11(c) is similar to Figure 14c in [2], Figure 17c in [3], and Figure 9c in [7]. Figure 11(d) is similar to Figure 14d in [2] and Figure 17d in [3]. In particular, Figure 11 in [1] shares the same image of a sample in HCl as Figure 9 in [7] and the same image in the presence of an inhibitor, but these represent different inhibitors in each article, BAL and AMPT, respectively.

We asked the authors to provide the underlying uncropped and unadjusted scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images, the raw data, and details of how the experiments were conducted.

The corresponding author, Dr. Yadav, said the SEM work was outsourced but did not give details on where, when, or by whom this work was performed. The equipment is not described in this article. However, it is described as a “JEOL JSM-6380 LA analytical scanning electron microscope” in [7], and in [6] it is described as a “Scanning Electron Microscope model SEM Jeol JSM-5800.” These are not the same models of microscope, despite these articles sharing some of the same SEM images.

Dr. Yadav provided us with replacement figures. However, they were identical to two of the articles, [6] and [7], despite representing experiments with the inhibitors AMPT and ODAEODI, respectively. We were not told how these images were generated, the images were of low resolution, and the text in the images was illegible.

The corresponding author agreed to retraction and we have asked the institution to formally investigate.