Additions and corrections


A novel route for preparing highly proton conductive membrane materials with metal-organic frameworks

Bin Wu, Xiaocheng Lin, Liang Ge, Liang Wu and Tongwen Xu

Chem. Commun., 2013, 49, 143–145 (DOI: 10.1039/C2CC37045J). Amendment published 23rd April 2014.


The Editor has been made aware that Figure 3b in this article is identical to Figure 3a in a previous ChemComm article: Harold B. Tanh Jeazet, Claudia Staudt and Christoph Janiak, Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 2140-2142. The copied image had been manipulated, with the new version rotated through 180 degrees and the scale removed. No acknowledgement or reference to the original communication was included.

Bin Wu, the first author on the article, has admitted manipulating the original image and including it in the recent communication. In a letter to the journal he apologised for his actions, commenting that through his lack of experience and understanding of scientific ethics he was unaware of the severity of his actions. All the authors, B. Wu, X. Lin, L. Ge, L. Wu and T. Xu, have accepted joint responsibility for this case of scientific fraud and would like to apologise to the authors of the original article, the journal and its readers.

The authors were asked to provide all original raw data relating to the images in the article, which were reviewed by a senior ChemComm referee. While the Editor and senior referee agree that the author’s actions amount to scientific misconduct, and are a clear breach of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s ethical guidelines, we have found that the overall conclusions and scientific findings in the paper are still valid, as they do not rely heavily on the copied and manipulated image. No further data manipulation or fabrication was found. In order to fulfil our duty as a publisher to correct the scientific record, and in accordance with the guidelines from the Committee in Publication Ethics (COPE), we have therefore decided to publish this correction.

The authors’ institution has been informed of the misconduct.

As a result of the circumstances outlined above, the following changes to the article are required.

Figure 3 in this article should be:


The authors have confirmed that the text within the article discussing the image remains accurate.


The Royal Society of Chemistry apologises for these errors and any consequent inconvenience to authors and readers.


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