Fraud Report: Vitamin K1 Prophylaxis for Neonatal Vitamin K Deficiency Bleeding — DOI 10.12417/2811-051X.26.04.094

Academic fraud report · Geng Detector

Summary

This fraud-detection report examines Zhou Jieru's 2026 paper in the Chinese–Foreign Medical Research Journal on Vitamin K1 prophylaxis against neonatal VKDB. The verdict is strongly negative: the paper is deemed a confirmed case of academic fraud masquerading as a clinical study, functioning as commercial advertorial for the 'Jianminxing' (健敏星) brand. Key problems include a placeholder ethics approval number ('XXX-2022-008') suggesting template copy-paste, an implausibly short publication timeline for a multi-center trial completed only months earlier, statistically invalid χ² use instead of Fisher's exact test on a 2×2 table with a zero cell (recalculated Fisher P≈0.121, not 0.041), and pharmacokinetically impossible results in which a sub-physiological oral dose (~0.03 ml drop) yielded higher serum vitamin K1 than a 1 mg intramuscular dose. The conclusion contains duplicated marketing copy and references 'complementary foods' for neonates under 24 hours old, exposing direct plagiarism from product promotional material. Confidence in the findings is high because the methodological and statistical errors are verifiable from the published text, though final adjudication requires institutional investigation.

Verdict

🔴 Confirmed (commercial advertorial disguised as a clinical study; academic fraud).

Key findings

Placeholder ethics approval number: The cited approval code reads "XXX-2022-008," exposing template-based copy-paste fabrication of ethical clearance.
Implausible publication timeline: A multi-center study claimed to run 2023-01 to 2025-12 is already in print by 2026 issue 4, leaving only months for data cleaning, analysis, writing, peer review, and revision — incompatible with normal medical-journal turnaround.
Misapplied statistical test on Table 4: For a 2×2 table with a zero cell (0/73 vs 3/73), the authors report χ² = 3.042, P = 0.041 instead of using Fisher's exact test (already invoked elsewhere in the paper). Recalculation using Fisher's exact test yields P ≈ 0.121 (two-sided), which is non-significant.
Pharmacokinetically impossible efficacy: Oral 1-drop (~0.03 ml) of the test product produced serum vitamin K1 and coagulation parameters significantly superior to a 1 mg intramuscular reference dose — incompatible with first-pass metabolism and dose equivalence.
Embarrassing text duplication in the Conclusion: The phrase "比常规维生素K1制剂比常规维生素K1制剂" is repeated verbatim, a copy-paste artifact from promotional copy.
Conclusion-text mismatch with study population: Recommendation to drip the product into "complementary foods (辅食) or milk" is inconsistent with subjects being neonates within 24 hours of birth, indicating plagiarism from a product brochure aimed at older infants.

Evidence highlights

DOI: 10.12417/2811-051X.26.04.094; Journal: 中外医学研究杂志 (Chinese–Foreign Medical Research Journal); Author: 周洁茹 (Zhou Jieru); Year: 2026, Vol. 5, Issue 04.
Ethics code anomaly: "XXX-2022-008" — literal "XXX" placeholder.
Table 4 counts: observation 0/73 (0%); control 3/73 (4.11%); reported χ² = 3.042, P = 0.041; Fisher's exact P ≈ 0.121.
Dose comparison: IM 1 mg vitamin K1 vs PO ~0.03 ml (one drop) of test product.
Verbatim duplication: "比常规维生素K1制剂比常规维生素K1制剂日常居家即可补充...直接滴入口腔、辅食或奶液中即可".
Linked report id: geng_geng_6a1fecdc8637c7.34382490.

Notes

Final determination of academic misconduct requires investigation by the authors' institution (reported affiliation: 广州天使儿童医院) and the journal editorial office.
Numerical values, DOI, and quoted text are reproduced exactly from the source report and should be reverified against the original PDF (zwyxyjzz0504094(1).pdf).
The AI-generated report explicitly disclaims absolute accuracy; false positives and false negatives remain possible.
Recommended follow-up: request raw data from authors, post on PubPeer, file a complaint with the journal and with the institutional academic-ethics committee.