Retraction notice: IoT enabled human-machine systems for smart city infrastructure – present scenario and challenges

The publisher of International Journal of Web Information Systems wishes to retract the article Sharma DK, Garg L (2025), “IoT enabled human-machine systems for smart city infrastructure – present scenario and challenges”. International Journal of Web Information Systems, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. Link to the cited article. It has come to our attention that there are significant concerns regarding the authorship and the source of this article. The authors failed to provide a satisfactory explanation to these concerns. As a result, the findings of the article cannot be relied upon. Emerald’s authorship policy guidelines make it clear that authorship is a fundamental aspect of transparency in the publication process and ensures accountability and responsibility for reported research. Further concerns were also raised as part of this investigation in that Figures 1, 2, and 5 are taken, without full and proper attribution, from the following earlier original works: Tai-hoon Kim, Carlos Ramos, and Sabah Mohammed (2017), “Smart City and IoT”, Future Generation Computer Systems, Vol. 76, pp. 159-62, Link to the cited article; H. Arasteh et al., “Iot-based smart cities: A survey,” 2016 IEEE 16th International Conference on Environment and Electrical Engineering (EEEIC), Florence, Italy, 2016, pp. 1-6, doi: Link to the cited article; Upadhyay GM, Kumar S, Chawla R, Gupta SK. 2023. Impact of Nanotechnology in the Development of Smart Cities. NanoWorld J 9(S5): S313-S318. The submission guidelines for International Journal of Web Information Systems make it clear that articles must be original and not infringe any existing copyright. The decision to retract has been informed by Link to COPE’s guidelines on retractions and Link to the Emerald’s publishing ethics. The authors wish to emphasise that there was no intention to misrepresent prior work or to claim originality for figures that were derived from previously published survey or review articles. The publisher of the journal sincerely apologizes to the readers.