The analysis of 5 million articles reveals that integrity problems are “systematic”, with harmful authors and editors that collaborate in shadows to promote false research. The phenomenon of fraudulent research is increasing all over the world and puts science at risk, warns experts. A new study revealed that extensive networks of actors work to publish false studies, growing rapidly and acting resilient.
The conclusions, published this week in the magazine Pnas, came from the analysis of over 5 million scientific articles in 70 thousand magazines.
“There are groups of editors that conspire to publish low quality articles that flee from traditional peer overhaul processes,” said Reese Richardson, a social scientist of Northwestern University and the main author of the study.
The research shows proof that there are networks of editors of scientific journals that often publish studies with integrity problems. They even connect through “intermediaries” to the authors of fraudulent studies.
“Destruction of trust”
The periodicals are platforms for researchers to share their discoveries, theories and ideas. There are tens of thousands, each with specific themes and different levels of scientific impact.
Fraudulent studies published in magazines may include buildings, unqualified results, plagiarated searches or manipulated images.
The phenomenon of systematic fraud passes through various actors, including “factories of articles”, which produce low quality studies at low quality or without adequate integrity and “predatory magazines”, which publish studies without expected control.
Already in the so -called “Auto -Promotion magazines”, the authors of the articles are editors of the magazines in which they publish their studies.
“This type of fraud destroys trust in science. District systematic analyzes and meta-analysis, delaying treatments and new research,” says Anna Abalkina, social scientist of Berlin Free University, who has not participated in the study.
It is estimated that up to one of seven articles contain false data. Artificial intelligence also feeds a bad scientific conduct. “It is possible to map the networks of duplication of images that reach thousands of articles,” continues Richardson.
Global impact
Another conclusion of the study is that fraudulent research is widespread all over the world and are systematic, not only as an exception outside of Europe or the United States, as many in the scientific one believe.
Several cases of highlighting the scientific fraud came to light. During the Covid-19 pandemic, fraudulent research was used to confirm political decisions on the use of hydroxiclorochin as a treatment.
“It is distressing to see other people to commit fraud and deceive others. But if you believe that science is useful and important for humanity, then you have to fight for this,” says Luis Amaral of Northwestern University, senior author of the study.
Scientific publication groups work to create new methods to identify fraudulent research and portray them, that is, to make public rectification when serious problems are detected. A large international publisher, Springer Nature, for example, has played 2,923 articles from his publications in 2024.
The tests of the new study show that individuals collaborate to publish articles that have been represented by several other magazines.
Low enhancement of science
Experts say that the problem, ultimately, is at the low appreciation of scientific research, the high degree of uncertainty of the Academy and the high competitiveness between scientists.
Scientific works and financing depend on the production of articles, causing that scientists suffer from the lack of resources and are pressing to publish in magazines.
Other research cited by the study in the PNA have already suggested that the bad scientific conduct is associated with the perception of an unfair market and the lack of opportunity or training.
“The increase in inequality in access to resources can contribute to the greater scale of scientific fraud. However, even when the resource is available, the research remains a high risk activity, it is not known to be a priori if a study will have happened or not,” wrote the researchers.
Therefore, the best solution to combat fraudulent publications, according to Richardson, is to abandon the quantitative metrics of the scientific evaluation, such as the counting of publications and quotes.
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Source: Terra
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