(6 Jun 2025) A university-scoring method that highlights research-integrity ‘red flags’ could make it easier to spot institutions that are chasing conventional publishing metrics at the expense of rigorous science, researchers say. The Research Integrity Risk Index, described in a preprint on arXiv last month1, categorizes institutions according to how many of their papers are retracted…
(14 May 2025) Poll of 5,000 researchers finds contrasting views on when it’s acceptable to involve AI and what needs to be disclosed. The survey results suggest that researchers are sharply divided on what they feel are appropriate practices. Whereas academics generally feel it’s acceptable to use AI chatbots to help to prepare manuscripts,…
(15 Apr 2025) The organization responsible for allocating basic research funding in China has issued misconduct findings against 26 researchers for violations ranging from breach of confidentiality to image manipulation, plagiarism, and buying and selling authorship. The National Natural Science Foundation of China, or NSFC, released the results of 15 misconduct investigations on April 11. Several of…
(7 Apr 2025) Springer Nature has introduced a new AI-based tool to detect irrelevant references in submitted manuscripts, expanding its suite of in-house research integrity technologies. The tool is being deployed by the publisher’s Research Integrity Group (RIG) across nearly all Springer Nature journals and books. It automatically analyzes the relevance of cited references in submissions…
(Apr 2025) In the scholarly publishing world, spring brings the annual return of STM Trends, a future-forward look at the entire ecosystem of scholarly communications by members of the STM Association. The ecosystem of scholarly communications is complex and ever-evolving — with new approaches and technologies emerging and existing players adapting to changing circumstances. What can…
(2 Apr 2025) Plagiarism, along with fabrication, data manipulation and other misdeeds, is considered to be one of the biggest sins an academic researcher can commit. As such, it makes sense that journals, editors and others overseeing scholarly publishing take plagiarism very seriously. They have protocols in place for receiving plagiarism complaints and investigating allegations…
The developers of a new open-access curriculum to teach rigor discuss confirmation bias and other common errors in scientific thinking, plus ways to avoid these missteps. (19 Mar 2025) It’s easy to do less-than-rigorous science without realizing it. Yet there isn’t a systematic way to learn good science practice, says Konrad Kording, professor of neuroscience at the…
(20 Feb 2025) Shady companies have long given unscrupulous scientists the opportunity to buy authorship of papers—a form of academic fraud. But according to a draft paper posted online today and scheduled to appear in the International Journal for Educational Integrity, these outfits have now diversified into selling intellectual property rights, too. Over the past 2 years, these…
(30 Dec 2024) At LibraryLearningSpace.com, we are dedicated to sharing what’s happening in the library and academic publishing world by curating news from across the globe. Looking back at 2024, the most viewed and frequently published topics were artificial intelligence (AI), research integrity, and our column of Ruth’s Rankings. AI’s Growing Role in Research …
(22 Dec 2024) A deepening crisis of academic fraud in Indonesian and Thai universities has revealed professors and lecturers paying for publications in predatory journals. In Indonesia, eleven professors at Lambung Mangkurat University lost their titles after failing to meet publication requirements and bribing evaluation team members. The scandal extends beyond ULM, with experts suggesting…