🚨 Taylor & Francis Under Notice: Their Response and Our Reply

Following ScienceGuardians™’s formal notice of 8 September 2025 to Taylor & Francis regarding conflicts of interest and infiltration of their Research Integrity & Ethics Office (read it here: https://scienceguardians.substack.com/p/formal-notice-regarding-conflicts), we received an official reply from Dr. Sabina Alam, Director of Publishing Ethics & Integrity, on 18 September 2025.

Our original notice was addressed to both Dr. Alam and Laura Wilson, Head of the Research Integrity & Ethics Office, and both were included in the subsequent correspondence.

We publish her response in full below, followed by ScienceGuardians™’s documented reply sent on 20 September 2025, so the academic community may judge the record for themselves.

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📩 Response from Dr. Sabina Alam (18 September 2025)

Dear Sirs

We are responding to your email dated September 8, 2025, addressed to the “Research Integrity & Ethics” and “Publishing Ethics & Integrity” offices of Taylor & Francis, as well as to multiple anonymous posts on the social media platform X concerning a named employee of Taylor & Francis, dated September 7 and September 8, 2025.

Your email and social media posts include several significant allegations about a particular individual at Taylor & Francis, and about the Taylor & Francis Publishing Ethics and Integrity Team (the “PEI Team”).

The PEI Team is committed to upholding the highest standards of research integrity and publishing ethics, as well as identifying and preventing unethical practices. As a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Taylor & Francis adheres strictly to COPE’s procedures and guidelines. Our ethics investigation processes are rigorous and incorporate multiple checks and balances.

Taylor & Francis takes such allegations very seriously. However, we note that you have not provided any evidence to support these allegations. If you have evidence to verify your claims, please share this with us and we will investigate accordingly. If you do not have such evidence, the substance of your email and social media posts are serious and highly defamatory, and have been disseminated by you to more than 3000 followers on the social media platform X. If you cannot substantiate these claims, then we insist that you retract these claims immediately.

If you continue to make these serious allegations without providing evidence of same, then we will have no choice but to refer this matter to our legal department and consider pursuing legal action.

Yours sincerely

Sabina Alam, PhD
Director of Publishing Ethics and Integrity
Taylor & Francis Group, Journals

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📩 ScienceGuardians™’s Reply (20 September 2025)

Re: Formal Notice Regarding Conflicts of Interest and Integrity Risks in Taylor & Francis’ Research Integrity & Ethics Office
ScienceGuardians support@scienceguardians.com
Sat, Sep 20
to Sabina Alam, Laura Wilson

Dear Dr. Alam,

Thank you for your reply of September 18, 2025. We note your statement that the Publishing Ethics & Integrity (PEI) Team takes allegations seriously and follows COPE guidance.

To be clear, our prior correspondence was submitted to place Taylor & Francis and its Research Integrity & Ethics Office on formal record; it was not an invitation to deflect. We have already published the notice and supporting archived evidence to ensure transparency and to allow any affected third parties to rely on the record.

For the avoidance of doubt, we now provide the specific, archived evidence that supports the material concerns set out in our notice:

• Public exposé & notice (full text): https://scienceguardians.substack.com/p/formal-notice-regarding-conflicts

• X thread: https://x.com/SciGuardians/status/1964740406853185692

• Archive of PubPeer activity (Nick Wise): https://archive.is/amMQu

• Archives revealing use/exposure of fake aliases (examples): https://archive.is/aGAie & https://archive.is/P2MJq — revealing that Wise operates under fake aliases. One of these, “Simnia avena,” was exposed by Leonid Schneider, an aggressive online stalker and key mob member, who has been self-implicated under EU and German laws for multiple legal crimes and violations (see: https://x.com/SciGuardians/status/1927031314735092191). We have also documented extensive collaboration between Nick Wise and Leonid Schneider, further underscoring the conflicts of interest and coordinated activities at play. This archive shows only the tip of the iceberg: articles authored by Wise for the highly derogatory blog operated by Schneider (https://archive.is/pFF10). It represents just a small fraction of the extensive evidence of collaboration between these two actors, which we have documented and thoroughly archived.

• Archive of alias “Simnia avena” activity: https://archive.is/mItH5

• Archive screenshots of post-appointment activity (examples): https://archive.is/7VcOy ; https://archive.is/eI55e ; https://archive.is/MA0fB ; https://archive.is/ZZl7T

• Archive of collusion with external actors: https://archive.is/dlWw5 — documenting Nick Wise’s collaboration with an established member of the PubPeer Network Mob, responsible for orchestrating defamation campaigns against senior academics, including Nobel Laureate and Stanford University Professor Thomas C. Südhof, while he simultaneously served as Research Integrity Manager at Taylor & Francis.

• Recent evidence of defamatory amplification and intimidation: https://x.com/SciGuardians/status/1969031960702968055 — documenting threats to retract papers, defamatory attacks, and the unprofessional, inflammatory amplification of these attacks by the institutional arm of the PubPeer Network Mob, Retraction Watch. The suspicious move by Taylor & Francis to issue a warning that the paper is “under investigation” — rather than working in good faith with the authors — constitutes a clear act of intimidation and provocation. This development strengthens our concerns that the publisher’s integrity office has been infiltrated and compromised.

On that basis, we request the following concrete responses from Taylor & Francis and the PEI Team within 14 days of receipt of this email (to create a clear record of your response timeline):

1. Confirmation whether Mr. Wise has disclosed any conflicts of interest to Taylor & Francis (including his activities on PubPeer and any known aliases).

2. Confirmation whether Taylor & Francis has conducted an internal review of Mr. Wise’s post-appointment activity and, if so, a summary of the scope and outcome of that review (or an explanation why such a review has not been conducted).

3. Confirmation of the safeguards that are in place to prevent improper use or disclosure of confidential editorial information by staff in the Research Integrity office.

4. Whether any steps have been (or will be) taken to remove or mitigate the risk while the review is ongoing (for example: temporary restriction of access to sensitive material, independent review of cases handled post-January 2025, recusal measures).

5. The identity/office of the person who will serve as the contact point for follow-up and the timeline for publication of a summary of findings (if any) or actions taken.

We are prepared to cooperate in good faith with an independent review or neutral third-party assessment if Taylor & Francis wishes to arrange one; alternatively, we expect you to provide the factual answers above and confirm remedial steps.

For clarity, your threat of legal action does not relieve Taylor & Francis of its duty of care to the academic community. The materials referenced above are archived, preserved, and made public precisely so that they may be used as evidence in any future institutional or legal proceedings. Should third parties experience reputational, professional, or financial harm linked to conflicts of interest, collusion, or abuse of insider access by Mr. Wise, liability may extend to Taylor & Francis and to its leadership if this notice is ignored or dismissed without proper investigation.

Please note this email, together with your reply, will be appended to the public record and preserved as a matter of record. Any future proceedings — whether in courts of law, regulatory inquiries, or institutional reviews — may assess not only Mr. Wise’s conduct but also the adequacy of Taylor & Francis’ response once placed on clear notice.

We look forward to your timely and transparent response.

Sincerely,
Elias Verum
On behalf of ScienceGuardians™
🌐 scienceguardians.com
𝕏 @SciGuardians
📧 support@scienceguardians.com | scienceguardians@gmail.com

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⚖️ Notice of Record

This exchange — with both Dr. Alam and Ms. Wilson as recipients — is now preserved as part of the public record. Any future proceedings — whether legal, regulatory, or institutional — may assess not only the conduct of Nick Wise but also the adequacy of Taylor & Francis’ response once placed on clear and documented notice.

🔱 ScienceGuardians™ will continue to publish key correspondence, evidence, and developments to ensure transparency and accountability in academic publishing.

🌐 scienceguardians.com
𝕏 @SciGuardians