(21 Jul 2026) A second-year medical student in Nepal is at the center of an international research network churning out everything from systematic reviews and meta-analyses to case reports and database studies, Retraction Watch has learned. The student, Raghabendra Kumar Mahato, leverages this network, which includes nearly 1,000 members connected through the WhatsApp messaging platform, to…
(8 Jul 2026) Indonesian authorities are widening their investigation into a case of suspected identity and research fraud at an overseas medical conference, which has exposed gaps in academic oversight and revived concerns about abuses in the nation’s system of publication-driven promotion for academia. The Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology has set up a…
(24 Apr 2026) Researchers have amassed a data set of thousands of advertisements selling research-paper authorships online, shedding light on the global marketplace for academic fraud. The collection — the largest of its kind — contains more than 18,700 adverts that were posted between March 2020 and early April 2026 by seven paper mills — businesses that produce fake…
(27 Jan 2026) Over the past decade, Hindawi expanded rapidly from a small open access (OA) publisher into a large, multi-journal operation publishing tens of thousands of articles annually. This period of growth coincided with an increase in submissions later linked to paper mills. By 2023–2024, public reporting documented that more than 8,000 articles across a…
(8 Oct 2025) Two major publishers have begun to automatically reject the vast majority of papers based on public health data sets, following revelations that unscrupulous actors use these data sets to churn out nonsense scientific papers. Last month, PLOS and Frontiers both announced submissions that use data sets such as the U.S. Centers for Disease…
(11 Sept 2025) The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) has released new retraction guidelines designed to address growing challenges such as paper mill activity, fraudulent authorship, and undeclared third-party involvement. The new framework specifies that journals should retract work when authorship cannot be verified, when accountability is uncertain, or when any form of misrepresentation—including deception, fraud (e.g., a…
(8 Sept 2025) Earlier this year, China’s supreme court said companies selling fake or low-quality research papers should be punished. But shady middlemen there continue to offer questionable deals to journal editors across the globe in a bid to secure publications for their customers, emails obtained by Retraction Watch suggest. In the emails, sent between May and…
(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…
(4 Dec 2024) The paper mill crisis has polluted the scholarly record and eroded public trust in science. Miriam Maus of IOP Publishing shares her view from the front lines of the fight for publishing integrity. Katina has the interview in full here.