A scientist has left Swinburne University after 30 of his studies were retracted from scientific journals following allegations he had copied and republished the same research over and over again.

Dr Ali Nazari is a decorated building-materials researcher who had won more than $1 million in taxpayer research funding in the last three years.

The university launched an investigation in August after several scientific journals announced they had discovered problems with studies Dr Nazari authored or co-authored.

Ali Nazari receives a commendation from Swinburne University in 2017

The studies were retracted over allegations of "author misconduct" and self-plagiarism – a practice akin to rewriting a single piece of homework and submitting slightly different versions of it.