Iraqi Academic Flagged for Duplicate Papers and Questionable Dates
An independent analysis regarding Mustafa Asaad Hasan reveals irregularities in authorship, chronology, and publication ethics.
Update (April 20, 2026): Following the initial publication of this report, the Editorial Office of JOINCS responded to our inquiry regarding the duplicate submission of “Facial Human Emotion Recognition by Using YOLO Faces Detection Algorithm” and University of Thi-Qar has issued a public statement. Read Here
On April 9, 2026, Shafaq News reported on a scientific scandal regarding a researcher at the University of Thi-Qar, involving allegations of scientific theft and double publishing used to secure rapid promotions and sensitive administrative roles. The report detailed how ready-made research was purchased. While the initial news report withheld the identities of the individuals involved, we conducted an independent digital forensic investigation to uncover the specific paper trail. Our investigation combined with an anonymous tip confirms that the evidence points directly to Mustafa Asaad Hasan.
The primary evidence of systemic manipulation is found in the paper “Deep Learning Model Based Decision Support System for Kidney Cancer on Renal Images” published in the Central Asian Journal of Mathematical Theory and Computer Science (CAJMTCS).
Though officially dated May 2024, the publication contains a metadata “fingerprint” proving it was compiled no earlier than October 2025. In the bibliography, Hasan explicitly lists digital access dates for his references that post-date the paper’s supposed publication by over a year:
Reference 11: “Accessed: Oct. 05, 2025”
Reference 24: “Accessed: Oct. 05, 2025”
In addition to that, some of the referenced publications were published in late 2025.
This chronological impossibility suggests that the manuscript was produced in late 2025 and manually backdated within the journal’s system. The anomaly is further underscored by the existence of a separate paper with an almost identical title published in the journal ETASR in October 2024. When requested for comment on the suspicious overlap between these two works, Dr. D. Pylarinos, Editor-in-Chief of ETASR, reviewed the timeline and stated:
“We were not aware of this publication and in our understanding it is doubtfull that this article was even published at the time the ETASR article was published... we will initiate an investigation regarding this matter”.
Text analysis reveals that the core of Hasan’s kidney cancer research was lifted directly from a Master of Science thesis by D.A. Salokhe, deposited at the National College of Ireland in September 2025.
The plagiarism is not restricted to technical terminology but includes highly specific, subjective “Research Gap” critiques. Furthermore, the analysis reveals a pattern of possible data fabrication. In the original Salokhe thesis, the AI models performed poorly (averaging 40%–82% accuracy). In Hasan’s version, which uses identical methodology, these figures were altered to claim a 99.27% success rate.
Because the methodology was plagiarized from a future-dated source, the reported results are considered scientifically unverifiable and lack a genuine experimental basis.
The investigation further identified a “double submission” involving the paper “Facial Human Emotion Recognition by Using YOLO Faces Detection Algorithm” The identical paper was published in both CAJMTCS (October 2023) and JOINCS (November 2023). Notably, the author list was altered between versions, removing a co-author’s name in the CAJMTCS edition to redistribute academic credit.
In response to these findings, the editorial boards involved have acknowledged the irregularities.
The Editorial Board of CAJMTCS addressed the evidence of backdating and plagiarism by citing a breakdown in previous oversight, stating:
“The journal has undergone managerial changes since early 2025. Under the current editorial management, we are making every effort to ensure that all articles are processed in accordance with standard editorial procedures”
The board further admitted that regarding the double submission, they have “strong reason to believe that the author may have engaged in double submission, which is clearly unacceptable” They have committed to “corrective action, including retraction of the article”, should their internal review confirm that the 2024 paper failed to undergo proper ethical checks.
It is important to note that on the editorial board of CAJMTCS is none other than Osamah Ibrahem Khalaf whom we covered in our previous story and Ahmed J. Obaid whose editorial activities and academic record are the subject of a forthcoming FraudFactor forensic audit. The presence of these individuals on the board raises questions that the journal's “oversight failures” may be a feature of its operations rather than an accident.
At the time of publication, JOINCS and Mustafa Asaad Hasan have not responded to requests for comment.
Update (April 20, 2026): Following the initial publication of this report, the Editorial Office of JOINCS responded to our inquiry regarding the duplicate submission of “Facial Human Emotion Recognition by Using YOLO Faces Detection Algorithm” and University of Thi-Qar has issued a public statement. Read Here