The High Cost of Compromised Scientific Integrity
Founded by linguists Mark Liberman, PhD, and Geoffrey Pullum, PhD, in 2003, Language Log is a blog that focuses on linguistics and language-related topics. Recently, Victor Mair, PhD, professor of Chinese language and literature at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote about the flood of fake scientific journal articles on Language Log .1
He writes, “On an average day I receive solicitations to write papers from them (these journals) three or four times. Sometimes they offer me editorships, or guest editorships for designated issues. Sometimes (but not often) they offer me money. All such emails immediately go in the trash, but they leave a bad taste and are unsettling.”
Mair is concerned about the pervasiveness of this problem and brought up a recent Wall Street Journal article by science reporter Nidhi Subbaraman who explains, “There is a significant increase of fake studies, often published in top scientific journals, which has led to thousands of retractions and millions of dollars in lost revenue.”2
Subbaraman points out that Wiley, a well-established publisher in Hoboken, New Jersey, recently announced the closure of 19 journals, some of which have been affected by large scale research fraud. She states that this company has retracted more than 11,300 papers in the past 2 years. Subbaraman notes that publication of scientific journals is a high-dollar industry and there is concern that these retractions will affect the general credibility of published scientific information. In 2022, IOP Publishing — located in Bristol, England, and established by the Institute of Physics — discovered nearly 900 fraudulent papers.
According to the website Retraction Watch, some of these papers are put together by paper mills. They advertise the titles of studies they intend to submit and list the cost for being added as an author. According to Dorothy Bishop, MA, DPhil, FBA, FMedSci, FRS, a psychologist at the University of Oxford, “Once publishers become alerted to these fabrications, the mills simply change their tactics. It’s like a virus mutating.”
With the recent widespread concerns about the credibility of information and how it affects our health, this could further undermine the public’s trust in the scientific community. It is, however, somewhat comforting to understand that this problem has been recognized and attempts to restore credibility are currently underway.
References
- Mair V. Fake science journals. Language Log. Available at languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=64041. Accessed October 9, 2024.
- Subbaraman N. Flood of fake science forces multiple journal closures. Wall Street Journal. May 14, 2024.
From Decisions in Dentistry. October/November 2024;10(6):6.
