Retraction notice to “Comparative study of ZIF-8-materials for removal of hazardous compounds using physio-chemical remediation techniques” [Environ. Res. 220 (2023) 115168] (Environmental Research (2023) 220, (S0013935122024951), (10.1016/j.envres.2022.115168))

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier policy on article withdrawal (https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/article-withdrawal). This article has been retracted at the request of the Editor. Unauthorised authorship changes were made when the revised version of this paper was submitted, with authors Asma A. Alothman, Mohamed Ouladsmane and Samar A. Aldossari being added to the paper. No satisfactory explanation was given for this change during the peer review process, nor was it approved by the editor. When asked for an explanation post-publication, author Khoo Kuan Shiong indicated that these three individuals were added, amongst other things, to perform the BET analysis. However it was noted that (i) experimental section mentioned in the original submission mentioned that a BET analysis had been conducted, although the results were not presented (ii) the added authors were from different geographical regions than the original group of authors (iii) the three added authors were listed as “Writing- Review and Editing” in the CRediT authorship statement which does not relate to their involvement in conducting the BET analysis (iv) the sentence “The reusability of samples was checked using the BET (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller, Micromeritics, USA) analyzer.” appears in all versions of the manuscript from the original, however the BET analyzer cannot be used for reusability analysis or to get the results of figure 3. Consequently, the author's explanation was not satisfactory. This authorship change breaches the policies of the journal and as a result, the editors no longer have confidence in this paper and are retracting it. The journal apologises for not having identified the problematic authorship change during the review process and for any resulting inconvenience. Additionally, acceptance of the article was partly based upon the positive advice of reviewers who are closely linked to two of the authors (Awais Bokhari, Kuan Shiong Khoo). This compromised the editorial process and breached the journal's policies. The authors disagree with the retraction and dispute the grounds for it.