High profile chemistry journal removed from Web of Science index

A high-profile Elsevier chemistry journal, Chemosphere, has been removed from Clarivate’s Web of Science index for failing to meet editorial quality criteria. This means Clarivate will no longer index papers from Chemosphere, count their citations or give the title an impact factor.

Problems at the journal can be traced back to last year when eight articles were retracted in December 2024 and, in May 2024, it was highlighted that over 60 articles published by Chemosphere had had an expression of concern added to them. Reasons given varied from article to article but included unusual changes to the authorship of the article prior to publication and potential citation manipulation.

Chemosphere also recently came under fire for a study published in September last year on high levels of flame retardants in black plastic cooking utensils that received extensive media coverage. On 15 December the authors of the study published a correction explaining that they had miscalculated human exposure to flame retardants. Exposure was actually an order of magnitude lower than the safe daily reference dose, not approaching it, as they had initially reported.

Clarivate made the decision to remove Chemosphere, which had an impact factor of 8.1 in 2023, from its Web of Science index on 16 December for failing to meet editorial quality criteria. Delisting has a direct impact on the journal and particularly authors, as it can affect quantitative calculations of researchers’ output which are often used as a metric in hiring, tenure and promotion decisions. Delisted journals are also likely to have problems attracting authors.

According to Retraction Watch, expressions of concern started to appear online in March 2024 and papers in both special and regular issues of the journal were affected.

On 12 December, Chemosphere released a statement saying it had carried out a ‘thorough investigation’ of the flagged papers and was taking ‘decisive steps’ to ensure the journal’s integrity including retracting articles and publishing expressions of concern.