Mass production of fake science publishing: How big is the problem and why?

Abstract

Our trust in the integrity of academic publishing is the foundation of progress in biomedical science and technology. But there is now concern about an unprecedented scale of misconduct: industry-style, semi-automatic production of fake scientific publications by “paper mills”, professional agencies that fake scientific data, figures, tables, and AI-written manuscripts. While the number of fake publications was considered to be small, it now reaches concerning levels in biomedicine of 100,000+ publications annually, supporting a billion € industry. Researchers, editors, publishers and governmental funding bodies are called to action to stop this systematic attack on the permanent scientific record.