The Editor-in-Chief has retracted this article [1] because the validity of the content of this article cannot be verified. This article showed evidence of substantial text overlap (most notably with the articles cited [2-6]), peer review and authorship manipulation. Mohammad Mirzavand has not explicitly stated whether he agrees to this retraction notice. None of the other co-authors responded to correspondence about this retraction.

1.:

Akib S, Rahman S, Shamshirband S, Petković D (2015) Soft computing methodologies for estimation of bridge girder forces with perforations under tsunami wave loading. Bull Earthq Eng 13(3):935–995

2.:

Mirzavand M, Ghazavi R (2015) A Stochastic Modelling Technique for Groundwater Level Forecasting in an Arid Environment Using Time Series Methods. Water Resour Manage 29(4):1315–1328

3.:

Mirzavand M, Khoshnevisan B, Shamshirband S, Kisi O, Ahmad R, Akib S (2015) Evaluating groundwater level fluctuation by support vector regression and neuro-fuzzy methods: a comparative study. Nat Hazards 2015:1–15

4.:

Ramedani Z, Omid M, Keyhani A, Shamshirband S, Khoshnevis B (2014) Potential of radial basis function based support vector regression for global solar radiation prediction. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 39:1005–1011

5.:

Zakaria R, Noh SMC, Petković D, Shamshirband S, Penny R (2014) RETRACTED: Investigation of plasmonic studies on morphology of deposited silver thin films having different thicknesses by soft computing methodologies—A comparative study. Phys E: Lowdimensional Syst Nanostruct 63:317–323

6.:

Zakaria R, Sheng OY, Wern K, Shamshirband S, Wahab AWA, Petković D, Saboohi H (2014) Examination of tapered plastic multimode fiber-based sensor performance with silver coating for different concentrations of calcium hypochlorite by soft computing methodologies—a comparative study. J Opt Soc Am A 31(5):1023–1030