Unauthentic Research Documents Polluting Global Scientific Databases, Hindering Progress in Crucial Life-saving Investigations
==========================================================================================
In the world of academia, a disturbing trend has emerged over the past decade - the industrialization of fake scholarly research. This phenomenon, known as paper mills, has become so prevalent that it poses a significant threat to the integrity of science and the advancement of knowledge.
The problem is not limited to a few isolated cases. A recent study analysing 7,905 publications shared on Twitter showed that publications more heavily shared by unreliable users did have a slightly higher retraction rate compared to reliably used publications. However, these absolute percentages remain low in the whole sample, reflecting only detected and officially retracted papers, which lag behind actual fraudulent papers present in the literature.
One of the most notable cases of paper mills came to light in October 2023 when Jillian Goldfarb, an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Cornell University and a former editor of the Elsevier journal Fuel, resigned. In her LinkedIn post, she cited the company's failure to address dozens of potential paper-mill articles she had flagged, the hiring of a principal editor who reportedly engaged in paper and citation milling, and the proposal of candidates for editorial positions with longer PubPeer profiles and more retractions than most people have articles on their CVs, and whose names appear as authors on papers-for-sale websites.
Other tactics used by paper mills include bribing editors or planting agents on journal editorial boards. In Egypt, the emphasis on publications has led to researchers cutting corners, such as fabricating studies or buying authorship. No country is immune to this practice, but it is particularly pronounced in emerging economies where resources for bona fide science are limited.
The scholarly publishing industry is lucrative, bringing in close to $30 billion annually with profit margins as high as 40%. This has led to some publishers trying to pick reviewers they deem more likely to accept papers, because rejecting a manuscript can mean losing out on thousands of dollars in publication fees.
When retractions do happen, it is often thanks to the efforts of a small international community of amateur sleuths like Oviedo-García and those who post on PubPeer. But the scale of fake papers is substantial enough to prompt urgent responses from the scientific community, including improved peer review, forensic detection tools, and educational efforts to uphold research integrity.
The problem reflects a worldwide commodification of science, where universities and research funders prioritize regular publication in academic journals for promotions and job security. This has been exacerbated by the rise of AI technologies accelerating the production of fraudulent papers. In fact, recent research shows that many reviews are now written by AI.
The paper-mill problem is "absolutely huge," said Sabina Alam, director of Publishing Ethics and Integrity at Taylor & Francis, a major academic publisher. The American publisher Wiley, which has retracted over 11,300 compromised articles and closed 19 heavily affected journals, recently said its new paper-mill detection tool flags up to 1 in 7 submissions.
Despite the efforts to combat this issue, the exact percentage of fake papers varies widely. Retractions due to fraud and data manipulation have increased significantly since 2000, with over 75% of paper retractions in 2023 linked to data issues. However, many fraudulent papers likely remain undetected.
The consequences of this growing epidemic of fake scholarly research are far-reaching. Fake science is grinding down the knowledge base on which modern society rests. In one area of genetics research, "We're talking about more than 50% of papers published are from mills," Byrne said. "It's like swimming in garbage."
This metastasizing assault on science calls for urgent action. Improved peer review, forensic detection tools, and educational efforts to uphold research integrity are essential. But so is a re-evaluation of the system that has led to this crisis in the first place - a system that prioritizes quantity over quality, profit over science.
- The rampant production of fake scholarly research, particularly in the field of science, poses a significant threat to the understanding and treatment of medical conditions such as cancer, given the historical retractions due to fraud and data manipulation.
- The commodification of science, which prioritizes regular publication for promotions and job security, has led to a growth in health-and-wellness related studies being published through paper mills, contributing to a confused and questionable knowledge base in these critical areas.
