Unfortunately, like any successful system, even the sciences are not immune to the infection of parasites.

Fake studies have flooded the publishers of top scientific journals, leading to thousands of retractions and millions of dollars in lost revenue. The biggest hit has come to Wiley, a 217-year-old publisher based in Hoboken, N.J., which Tuesday will announce that it is closing 19 journals, some of which were infected by large-scale research fraud. 

In the past two years, Wiley has retracted more than 11,300 papers that appeared compromised, according to a spokesperson, and closed four journals. It isn’t alone: At least two other publishers have retracted hundreds of suspect papers each. Several others have pulled smaller clusters of bad papers.

Although this large-scale fraud represents a small percentage of submissions to journals, it threatens the legitimacy of the nearly $30 billion academic publishing industry and the credibility of science as a whole.

This is reminiscent to what Dr. Hank Campbell described in an article he wrote in Science 2.0 ten years ago describing how science has become politicized and organizations, like environmentalist groups, use scientific journals in order to advance political agendas.

Many times, Campbell said, environmentalists will turn to like-minded scientists to get manuscripts published in high-profile peer reviewed journals. Once done, the research becomes accepted despite critiques that later refute the researcher’s claims. From there, the manuscript takes on a life of its own by getting reported in the press thanks to green PR firms who hype the research and environmentalist groups can fundraise off of the publicity.

More recently, City-Journal published an article recently describing how the political Left has taken over scientific journalism which has resulted in compromising accurate scientific research. However, what The Wall Street Journal describes is something far more insidious.

The sources of the fake science are “paper mills”—businesses or individuals that, for a price, will list a scientist as an author of a wholly or partially fabricated paper. The mill then submits the work, generally avoiding the most prestigious journals in favor of publications such as one-off special editions that might not undergo as thorough a review and where they have a better chance of getting bogus work published. 

World-over, scientists are under pressure to publish in peer-reviewed journals—sometimes to win grants, other times as conditions for promotions. Researchers say this motivates people to cheat the system. Many journals charge a fee to authors to publish in them. 

Problematic papers typically appear in batches of up to hundreds or even thousands within a publisher or journal. A signature move is to submit the same paper to multiple journals at once to maximize the chance of getting in, according to an industry trade group now monitoring the problem. Publishers say some fraudsters have even posed as academics to secure spots as guest editors for special issues and organizers of conferences, and then control the papers that are published there. 

Though it is unclear who the specific parties are that are operating the paper mills, but they are based in China and India. AI-generated pseudoscience is compromising essential research in all scientific fields. The rise of artificial intelligence will undoubtedly make a bad situation worse and it also does not help matters when university research systems incentivize quantity over quality.

The results of authentic scientific investigation enhances people’s lives and what is abundantly clear is what The Wall Street Journal describes certainly undermines the left’s claims to follow the science or the science is settled. Science is ultimately a process and is made up of humans who are fallible. Hopefully, safeguards can be implemented to prevent the threat posed by paper mills, AI, and ideological groups. Unfortunately, it is unclear if such efforts will be successful and that should concern everyone.

PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay