Analysis reveals fraudulent 'paper mill' activity across over 4,000 cancer research articles
Researchers said suspect papers tended to cluster in a subset of journals including 'Journal of Experimental and Clinical Cancer Research' and 'Molecular Cancer' whereas other journals were only marginally affected
An analysis of 33,159 cancer journal articles has revealed patterns of fraudulent paper mill activity, with suspect papers receiving 50-100% more citations than other articles within one to three years of publication. However, these suspect papers had fewer readers and were accessed less often online. Researchers found that suspect papers tended to cluster in a subset of journals, including Journal of Experimental and Clinical Cancer Research and Molecular Cancer, while other journals were only marginally affected.
The team from Queensland University of Technology suggested that research paper mills, organizations that generate fake research papers for financial gain, may also manipulate citation counts, which are used to evaluate academic performance. Artificially inflated citation counts can distort the evidence base and mislead future research and clinical translation.
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, emphasizes the need for screening articles and journals for citation manipulation patterns to address this issue.
Written by urgent.news from The Hindu - Sci-Tech's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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