A troubling pattern is emerging in Kazakhstan’s academic community: Researchers linked to ethical violations are still receiving state honors, leadership roles and even international recognition, according to a recent report by the T-invariant outlet.
Award and retraction collide
In November 2025, Kazakhstan’s Institute of Nuclear Physics publicly congratulated Prof. Artem Kozlovskiy on receiving the «Best Elsevier Reviewer» award, praising him and wishing him «creative success and new scientific achievements.»
At the same time, editors at Chemical Papers retracted a paper he co-authored, citing major falsification of experimental data. Kozlovskiy now has 34 retracted publications — the highest known total for a researcher in Kazakhstan.
Widespread data manipulation concerns
The retracted study was found to include manipulated experimental charts, according to T-invariant. Data from OpenAlex — an open global research index — shows at least 33 additional Kozlovskiy publications have been withdrawn by international journals for serious breaches of academic integrity.
Many of those papers were co-authored with a former employee of Ural Federal University, who is now a member of Kazakhstan’s National Academy of Sciences.
The business of «turnkey» research
Experts say such misconduct often does not originate with senior academics themselves. Instead, questionable papers are frequently purchased as «turnkey» products, with established scientists added as co-authors to improve publication chances in prestigious journals.
This practice — sometimes described as «purchased authorship» — has become entrenched across parts of Kazakhstan’s research and higher education system.
A growing international marketplace
The Dissernet database documents numerous cases of paid co-authorship linked to a marketplace sometimes referred to as the Moscow Exchange for scientific publications, including 26 researchers from Kazakhstan.
However, T-invariant reports that activity has increasingly shifted toward Asia, where demand now exceeds that of the Moscow-based market. As a result, many researchers seek co-authors in countries across Asia and the Middle East.
One prominent example is Prof. Alibek Issakhov of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. He has co-authored 72 publications with researchers from Saudi Arabia indexed in OpenAlex, five of which have already been retracted.
Roughly 50 of Issakhov’s papers have also drawn serious criticism on PubPeer, where experts flagged concerns about their validity. Many of these works involve collaborators from Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and China — countries identified as key hubs in the market for purchased scientific articles.
Despite these concerns, Issakhov has received multiple honors, including the title of «Highly Cited Kazakh Author» and the «Web of Science Awards 2020: Leader of Science» in physics.
Echoes of Russia’s past
«Kazakhstan is largely following Russia’s path from before the so-called Special Military Operation, lagging by five to 10 years,» one commentator familiar with the situation said. «It is copying solutions without accounting for negative experiences and repeating the same mistakes.»
