New study uncovers fake paper mill activity across thousands of cancer research articles

A new analysis of over 33,000 cancer journal articles has revealed patterns of fake citation numbers across 4,000 papers linked to fraudulent research organisations known as paper mills. These suspect papers received between 50 and 100 per cent more citations than other articles within one to three years of publication, yet they had fewer readers and were accessed less often online.

Findings And Impact

Researchers found that the flagged papers tended to cluster in a subset of journals, including the Journal of Experimental and Clinical Cancer Research and Molecular Cancer, while other journals were only marginally affected. The study evaluated 33,159 articles published across 20 journals between 2012 and 2023. Co-researcher Baptiste Scancar noted that having more citations but fewer readers makes no sense, because citations normally come from readers. The team explained that paper mills make money by offering to list people's names on fake research papers, and they may be manipulating citation counts to boost academic performance metrics. Adrian Barnett, an author and statistician from Queensland University of Technology's Australian Centre for Health Services Innovation, warned that artificially high citation rates can inflate journal impact factors, amplify unreliable findings, and slow scientific progress.

Context

Academic citations are widely used by universities and funding bodies to measure the impact of a researcher's work and to decide on promotions or grants. When fraudulent organisations manipulate these metrics, it can corrupt the entire scientific record and misinform future medical studies and patient treatments.