Scientific Reports retracts an article from Chinese scholars due to suspected plagiarism (photo: screenshot of Scientific Reports website)

Scientific Reports, an online multidisciplinary journal from Nature Research, has reportedly retracted an article from Chinese scholars due to suspected plagiarism.

According to a Scientific Reports announcement on April 9, the journal had retracted the article Modified box dimension and average weighted receiving time on the weighted fractal networks, an article from five Chinese authors published in December 2015.

Significant portions of the text and equations were taken from Hungarian Roland Molontay's BSc thesis without attribution, the announcement read.

The authors do not agree to the retraction of the article, it added.

The article's first author Dai Meifeng, a professor at Jiangsu University, said she was not able to comment as the controversial article is under investigation, China Science Daily reported on Wednesday.

Jiangsu University told media on April 18 that it had invited experts to verify the plagiarism, and that a result has not yet been reached.

Having a zero-tolerance plagiarism policy, the university would hand Dai a serious punishment if plagiarism is confirmed, the university said, according to China Science Daily.