Accused “Fraudster” Heads Two Journals

A Russian researcher suspected of multiple counts of fakery is chief editor of two scientific publications.

Written byKerry Grens
| 4 min read

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FLICKR, JOHN MARTINEZ PAVLIGADmitry Kuznetsov, a Russian biochemist whose published work has been repeatedly alleged to be fraudulent, is now the chief editor of two science journals. The appointments are raising questions about the scientific integrity of the publications.

The accusations against Kuznetsov, if true, amount to “one of the worst fraud records in the history of science,” said Dan Larhammar, a professor at Uppsala University in Sweden who has written about problems in Kuznetsov's work. “That should be a major concern to” the publisher that recruited Kuznetsov as editor-in-chief, he said.

Kuznetsov (whose name is also spelled Kouznetsov, Kouznetsoff, Kuesnetzov, Kznetsov, and Kuznetcef) is currently a Leading Research Fellow at the N. N. Semenov Institute for Chemical Physics in Moscow. He is also the chief editor of two journals published by open-access publisher ScienceDomain: the British Journal of Medicine and Medical Research and the International Research Journal of Pure and Applied Chemistry. Both journals launched in 2011.

Michael Coey, a professor at Trinity ...

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  • kerry grens

    Kerry served as The Scientist’s news director until 2021. Before joining The Scientist in 2013, she was a stringer for Reuters Health, the senior health and science reporter at WHYY in Philadelphia, and the health and science reporter at New Hampshire Public Radio. Kerry got her start in journalism as a AAAS Mass Media fellow at KUNC in Colorado. She has a master’s in biological sciences from Stanford University and a biology degree from Loyola University Chicago.

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