A new Northwestern University study has revealed a rise in organized scientific fraud, with sophisticated global networks of individuals and entities working together to undermine the integrity of academic publishing. The problem is so widespread that the publication of fraudulent science is outpacing the growth rate of legitimate scientific publications. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, highlights the need for the scientific community to act before the public loses confidence in the scientific process.
The researchers analyzed extensive datasets of retracted publications, editorial records, and instances of image duplication, primarily from major aggregators of scientific literature, including Web of Science (WoS), Elsevier’s Scopus, National Library of Medicine’s PubMed/MEDLINE, and OpenAlex. They also collected lists of de-indexed journals, which are scholarly journals that have been removed from databases for failing to meet certain quality or ethical standards.
The team uncovered coordinated efforts involving “paper mills,” brokers, and infiltrated journals. These networks function much like factories, churning out large numbers of manuscripts that they then sell to academics who want to quickly publish new work. These manuscripts are mostly low quality, featuring fabricated data, manipulated or even stolen images, plagiarized content, and sometimes nonsensical or physically impossible claims.
To combat this growing threat to legitimate scientific publishing, Amaral and Richardson emphasize the need for a multi-prong approach, including enhanced scrutiny of editorial processes, improved methods for detecting fabricated research, a greater understanding of the networks facilitating this misconduct, and a radical restructuring of the system of incentives in science. They also underscore the importance of addressing these issues before artificial intelligence (AI) infiltrates scientific literature more than it already has.
