Satellite Ship Tracking Paper Retracted Over Duplicated Figures and Text

A peer-reviewed paper on the architecture of satellite-based Global Ship Tracking systems has been retracted by the journal Aerospace Systems, after the Editor-in-Chief concluded that substantial parts of the article overlapped with the author’s own previously published work. The retraction note, published on 5 October 2026, states that concerns were raised following publication regarding similarities between the figures and text of the retracted article and those appearing in three earlier publications that shared the same author. The original paper, titled Contemporary architecture of the satellite Global Ship Tracking (GST) systems, networks and equipment, had appeared in the journal on 6 September 2024, spanning pages 677 to 691 of volume seven.

The retracted study, authored by Dimov Stojce Ilcev of the University of Johannesburg, had set out to describe the contemporary architecture of satellite Global Ship Tracking systems, the networks that carry their data, and the equipment used aboard vessels and ashore. Global Ship Tracking is a field that sits at the intersection of satellite communications, radio-navigation and maritime operations, and the paper formed part of a body of work by the same author on positioning and tracking solutions for maritime applications. According to the retraction notice, however, the journal determined that the article was redundant, because its content substantially duplicated material that had already appeared in print elsewhere.

The specifics laid out in the retraction note are unusually detailed. The Editor-in-Chief identified overlaps between nine figures in the retracted article and figures in three earlier works: a 2016 book by the same author introducing ship satellite tracking systems, a 2021 Springer volume arising from the first international conference on maritime education and development, and a 2022 article on the architecture of positioning and tracking solutions for maritime applications published in TransNav, the International Journal on Marine Navigation and Safety of Sea Transportation. The retraction note maps each overlap individually, naming the corresponding figures in each of the three earlier publications.

According to the notice, Figure 1 of the retracted paper appears to overlap with Figure 1 of the 2016 book, Figure 3 of the 2021 conference volume, and Figure 9.1 of the 2022 TransNav article. Figure 2 of the retracted paper appears to overlap with Figure 2 of the 2016 book, Figure 4 of the 2021 volume, and Figure 9.2 of the TransNav article. Figure 4 of the retracted paper appears to overlap with Figure 3 of the 2016 book and Figure 9.3 of the TransNav article, and to partially overlap with Figures 7 and 8 of the 2021 volume. Figure 6 of the retracted paper appears to overlap with Figure 4 of the 2016 book and Figure 9.4 of the TransNav article, and partially overlaps with Figure 12 of the 2021 volume.

The pattern continues through the remainder of the flagged figures. Figure 8 of the retracted article appears to overlap with Figure 5 of the 2016 book and Figure 9.5 of the TransNav article, with partial overlap of Figure 15 in the 2021 volume. Figure 10 appears to overlap with Figure 16 of the 2021 volume. Figure 11 appears to overlap with Figure 6 of the 2016 book and Figure 9.6 of the TransNav article. Figure 14 partially overlaps with Figure 8 of the 2016 book and Figure 9.8 of the TransNav article, while Figure 15 partially overlaps with Figure 9 of the 2016 book and Figure 9.9 of the TransNav article. In total, the notice documents repeated reuse of illustrative material across at least three publications by the same author, a practice that journals generally treat as redundant publication when the overlap is not transparently disclosed.

Retraction decisions of this kind follow a well-established process in scholarly publishing. When concerns about overlap, duplication or integrity are raised after publication, the journal’s editors typically investigate, often in consultation with the publisher’s research integrity group and, where appropriate, the author’s institution. Authors are given the opportunity to respond to the concerns and to explain or justify any similarities. In this case, the retraction note records that the author was asked to clarify the similarities in content but did not provide a satisfactory explanation. The Editor-in-Chief therefore retracted the article, stating that it was redundant. The notice adds that the author did not respond to correspondence from the editors regarding the retraction itself.

The technical subject matter of the retracted paper remains an active and consequential area of research, which is part of why the case draws attention. Satellite-based ship tracking relies on constellations and networks that allow vessels to be located, identified and monitored across the open ocean, far beyond the reach of coastal radar and terrestrial automatic identification system base stations. Modern maritime tracking architectures typically combine satellite communications links, positioning services and shore-based data networks to deliver continuous vessel monitoring for safety, security, search and rescue, fleet management and regulatory compliance. Equipment aboard ships must integrate transceivers, antennas and processing units with navigation systems, while shore infrastructure aggregates and distributes tracking data to operators and authorities.

Because the field advances through incremental architectural descriptions, diagrams of system configurations carry particular weight in the literature. Network topologies, signal flow diagrams and equipment schematics are the currency through which researchers communicate how tracking systems are assembled and how data moves between ships, satellites and ground stations. When such figures are reused across multiple publications without adequate disclosure, the scholarly record can overstate the amount of new technical information being contributed. Journals such as Aerospace Systems, which covers aerospace technology and astronautics alongside related systems analysis, treat transparent novelty as a condition of publication, and redundant publication undermines that condition even when the underlying engineering content is not itself in dispute.

The retraction also illustrates the mechanics of how the modern scholarly record self-corrects. The retraction note is linked to the original article through its own digital object identifier, 10.1007/s42401-026-00558-y, distinct from the DOI of the retracted paper, 10.1007/s42401-024-00314-0. The original article remains findable, but it now carries the retraction notice, and citation services flag its status so that readers and indexing databases can distinguish retracted work from the standing literature. The publisher’s notice also records that Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations, a standard disclaimer, and notes that no data was obtained for the retraction note itself.

For researchers and practitioners in maritime satellite tracking, the practical takeaway is procedural rather than technical. The retracted paper’s descriptions of Global Ship Tracking systems, networks and equipment can no longer be cited as a novel contribution, and readers seeking that material are directed by the retraction notice’s reference list to the earlier publications where overlapping content first appeared, including the 2016 introduction to ship satellite tracking systems, the 2021 conference proceedings volume, and the 2022 TransNav article on positioning and tracking architectures for maritime applications. The case serves as a reminder that even in specialist engineering fields, where diagrams and system descriptions may legitimately recur across a career’s worth of work on the same technology, journals expect each paper to make clear what is new, to disclose prior publication of overlapping material, and to respond to editorial inquiries. When those expectations are not met, the retraction mechanism, however blunt, remains the primary tool the scientific community has for keeping the record accurate.

Subject of Research: Retraction of a paper on satellite Global Ship Tracking systems architecture due to redundant publication

Article Title: Retraction Note: Contemporary architecture of the satellite Global Ship Tracking (GST) systems, networks and equipment

Article References: Ilcev, D. S. (2026). Retraction Note: Contemporary architecture of the satellite Global Ship Tracking (GST) systems, networks and equipment. Aerospace Systems. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42401-026-00558-y

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s42401-026-00558-y

Keywords: retraction, Global Ship Tracking, satellite communications, maritime navigation, Aerospace Systems, research integrity, redundant publication, duplicate figures, Springer Nature, ship tracking systems, editorial ethics, scholarly publishing