Integrity Concerns Report: Hierarchical Chirality Memory Governs Dual Chiroptical Inversion in Mesoscopic Helical Covalent Organic Frameworks (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., DOI 10.1002/anie.5082047)

Academic fraud report · Geng Detector

Summary

AI-assisted integrity review of the paper 'Hierarchical Chirality Memory Governs Dual Chiroptical Inversion in Mesoscopic Helical Covalent Organic Frameworks' (DOI: 10.1002/anie.5082047, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2026) rates the manuscript as highly suspicious (orange, elevated to 'highly suspected' after Bayesian synthesis). Confirmed findings include: a direct contradiction between the text (30 min for Figure 6d) and the Figure 6 caption ((d) 15 min); two references containing non-human author names ('Z. X. T. Dendrimers', 'W. D. Highly'), a hallmark of fabricated or AI-generated citations; a verbatim duplicated sentence in the DFT discussion; and strong copy-move duplication clues (e.g., 47 matching block pairs at offset (0,40) in img-002) plus inconsistent noise variance across multiple figure panels, pending confirmation with original images. Statistical digit tests (Benford/last-digit) were assessed as inapplicable to this physically constrained data and excluded as evidence. Timeline checks found no anomalies. Verdict confidence is limited by lack of access to raw image data; final determination requires institutional investigation.

Verdict

Highly suspicious (initial rating: 🟠 highly suspicious; automated Bayesian synthesis: 🔴 highly suspected, posterior ≥99.9%, 95% credible interval [99.9%, 100%], BF = 5.01e+5). This is not a formal finding of misconduct; institutional verification with raw data is required.

Key findings

Caption–text contradiction (confirmed, 🟠): The text states "Upon further polymerization to 30 min, the fibers became thicker and more strongly twisted" referring to Figure 6d, while the Figure 6 caption labels panel (d) as 15 min. Whichever timestamp is correct, at least one conflicts with experimental records; the contradiction sits on the timeline central to the polymerization-kinetics argument.
Anomalous references (confirmed, 🟠): Ref. 19 lists "Z. X. T. Dendrimers" and Ref. 30 lists "W. D. Highly" — common nouns/adverbs from titles treated as author surnames, suggesting fabricated or unverified, possibly AI-generated citation metadata.
Copy-paste residue (confirmed, 🟡): "The overall trimer adopts a clockwise stacking configuration." is immediately repeated verbatim in the DFT discussion (p. 7). Programmatic matching initially missed it due to a line break — an acknowledged limitation of automated checks.
Image duplication clues (under suspicion, ⚠️): Copy-move analysis (Fridrich block matching) found same-offset matched block pairs in multiple panels: img-002 offset (0,40) 47 pairs; img-011 (48,0) 21 pairs; img-009 (32,0) 16 pairs; img-008 (0,40) 11 pairs; img-004 (32,0) 14 pairs; img-005 (80,0) 10 pairs; noise variance inconsistency (CV 0.64–1.00) across 7 images. Benign explanations (regular multi-panel layout elements, illumination gradients) lack positive support in the manuscript and no original images were available; retained as strong leads requiring pixel-level verification.
Digit statistics (not adopted, ⚪): Benford/last-digit anomalies (χ² up to 926.9; last-digit χ²=382.1; odd/even 27/140) are deemed inapplicable to physically constrained spectral/crystallographic data; excluded as evidence.
Timeline check (no anomaly, ⚪): Received 26 May 2026, Revised 6 Jul 2026, Accepted 20 Jul 2026; 2026 citations predate submission; no anachronistic reagents. Fast review (~2 months) is within Angewandte rapid-track norms.

Evidence highlights

Verified verbatim: text "30 min (Figure 6d)" vs. caption "(d) 15 min" — same figure, same time series.
Verified verbatim: "F. Li, X. Li, X. Wang, Y. and Z. X. T. Dendrimers" (Ref. 19); "J. Sun, L. Peng, L. Liu, and W. D. Highly" (Ref. 30).
Duplicated sentence confirmed by human re-check (cross-line breaking defeated automated matching).
Image forensics: 47 matched pairs at offset (0,40) in img-002; corroborating signals in 5 further images at consistent offsets; unverified against originals.
Automated evidence synthesis: top contributions from Finding 1 (13.2%), img-005 copy-move (12.1%), Finding 2 (11.8%). Note: conditional independence assumption may overstate joint strength of related evidence.

Notes

DOI: 10.1002/anie.5082047; journal: Angewandte Chemie International Edition; year: 2026. Authors: Zhenzhen Jiang, Xinlin Zha, Mengjuan Zuo et al.; corresponding: Xinlin Zha, Niaz Ali Khan, Jing Lu, Dong Wang.
17 leads were excluded after review (benign explanations accepted, test preconditions unmet, or informational) and are not counted in the synthesis.
Recommended follow-up: request original SEM/TEM images and timing records (especially the 15/30 min discrepancy) for Figures 2, 5, 6; verify Refs. 19 and 30; raise concerns on PubPeer; if panel splicing is confirmed, report to the journal and the authors' institution (Wuhan Textile University).
Report is AI-assisted for academic discussion only; it does not constitute a misconduct determination, and false positives/negatives are possible.