diff --git a/dhp-workflows/dhp-dedup-openaire/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/oa/dedup/SparkPropagateRelation.java b/dhp-workflows/dhp-dedup-openaire/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/oa/dedup/SparkPropagateRelation.java
index 4e012293b9..32b01679f5 100644
--- a/dhp-workflows/dhp-dedup-openaire/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/oa/dedup/SparkPropagateRelation.java
+++ b/dhp-workflows/dhp-dedup-openaire/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/oa/dedup/SparkPropagateRelation.java
@@ -83,12 +83,14 @@ public class SparkPropagateRelation extends AbstractSparkAction {
                 .textFile(relationPath)
                 .map(patchRelFn(), Encoders.bean(Relation.class));
 
+        //change raw ids with dedup ids
         Dataset<Relation> newRels =
                 processDataset(
                     processDataset(rels, mergedIds, FieldType.SOURCE, getFixRelFn(FieldType.SOURCE)),
                 mergedIds, FieldType.TARGET, getFixRelFn(FieldType.TARGET))
                 .filter(SparkPropagateRelation::containsDedup);
 
+        //update deletedbyinference
         Dataset<Relation> updated = processDataset(
                 processDataset(rels, mergedIds, FieldType.SOURCE, getDeletedFn()),
                 mergedIds, FieldType.TARGET, getDeletedFn());
diff --git a/dhp-workflows/dhp-dedup-openaire/src/test/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/oa/dedup/SparkDedupTest.java b/dhp-workflows/dhp-dedup-openaire/src/test/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/oa/dedup/SparkDedupTest.java
index 880e917ce7..d0098e7e2c 100644
--- a/dhp-workflows/dhp-dedup-openaire/src/test/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/oa/dedup/SparkDedupTest.java
+++ b/dhp-workflows/dhp-dedup-openaire/src/test/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/oa/dedup/SparkDedupTest.java
@@ -4,17 +4,24 @@ import eu.dnetlib.dhp.application.ArgumentApplicationParser;
 import eu.dnetlib.dhp.schema.oaf.Relation;
 import eu.dnetlib.enabling.is.lookup.rmi.ISLookUpException;
 import eu.dnetlib.enabling.is.lookup.rmi.ISLookUpService;
+import eu.dnetlib.pace.util.MapDocumentUtil;
 import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;
 import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
 import org.apache.spark.SparkConf;
+import org.apache.spark.api.java.JavaPairRDD;
+import org.apache.spark.api.java.JavaRDD;
 import org.apache.spark.api.java.JavaSparkContext;
+import org.apache.spark.api.java.function.PairFunction;
+import org.apache.spark.sql.Dataset;
 import org.apache.spark.sql.Encoders;
+import org.apache.spark.sql.Row;
 import org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.*;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.extension.ExtendWith;
 import org.mockito.Mock;
 import org.mockito.Mockito;
 import org.mockito.junit.jupiter.MockitoExtension;
+import scala.Tuple2;
 
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
@@ -211,6 +218,27 @@ public class SparkDedupTest implements Serializable {
 
         assertEquals(826, relations);
 
+        //check deletedbyinference
+        final Dataset<Relation> mergeRels = spark.read().load(DedupUtility.createMergeRelPath(testOutputBasePath, "*", "*")).as(Encoders.bean(Relation.class));
+        final JavaPairRDD<String, String> mergedIds = mergeRels
+                .where("relClass == 'merges'")
+                .select(mergeRels.col("target"))
+                .distinct()
+                .toJavaRDD()
+                .mapToPair((PairFunction<Row, String, String>) r -> new Tuple2<String, String>(r.getString(0), "d"));
+
+        JavaRDD<String> toCheck = jsc.textFile(testDedupGraphBasePath + "/relation")
+                .mapToPair(json -> new Tuple2<>(MapDocumentUtil.getJPathString("$.source", json), json))
+                .join(mergedIds)
+                .map(t -> t._2()._1())
+                .mapToPair(json -> new Tuple2<>(MapDocumentUtil.getJPathString("$.target", json), json))
+                .join(mergedIds)
+                .map(t -> t._2()._1());
+
+        long deletedbyinference = toCheck.filter(this::isDeletedByInference).count();
+        long updated = toCheck.count();
+
+        assertEquals(updated, deletedbyinference);
     }
 
     @AfterAll