Retraction notice to “Effect of different fibre types on the structural performance of recycled aggregate concrete beams with spliced bars” [J. Build. Eng. 38 (2021) 102090

Abstract

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/article-withdrawal). This article has been retracted at the request of the Editors-in-Chief. Following an investigation of this and a related paper https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2021.113362, the Editors-in-Chief no longer have confidence in the scientific integrity of this paper, as the same set of images has been used in two articles in different journals claiming varying conditions, which violates our publishing policies. In this article, six identical photos of tested specimens in two figures are presented as in another paper, only for different geometric (lap splice length) & material (aggregate type and fiber percentage) conditions. Furthermore, certain test specimen, testing setup, and loading condition geometric features of all eight tested specimen photos across the two figures are inconsistent with other figures presented in the paper, and there are photos presented in two other figures (to show coarse aggregates and fibers) that have been taken from internet sources without attribution. Communication with one co-author, Jorge De Brito, raised further concerns about the integrity of this work, to the extent that he expressed no longer having confidence in the content of the article.