The Warda-Han-Proteomics scandal: fingerprints of plagiarism, too

We have now a well-developed and sad case example of irresponsible scientific editing and publishing: the Warda-Han advanced online paper by the academic journal Proteomics: Mitochondria, the missing link between body and soul: Proteomic prospective evidence. What started as an abstract-based hunch and question about the quality of a recent review, addressed to and amplified by the the scientific blogosphere may probably end as a piece of investigative journalism in the mainstream media with serious consequences and conclusions on scientific publishing. Right now, the real investigation takes place at the comment section of the PZ Myers post A baffling failure of peer review over at Pharyngula. The story there is quickly unfolding thanks to the smart and open-eyed (Google-savvy) contributors who figured out amongst others that Warda and Han significantly reduced their review writing efforts by borrowing many sentences from other colleagues’ papers. Here I’d like to mention and cite only 3 comments: