May 01, 2022 21:00:00

It is pointed out that 'garbage papers' by unscrupulous researchers who buy achievements with money are mass-produced

Some researchers have performed malicious acts such as

submitting papers with unclear content or maliciously reusing data between papers for the sole purpose of 'publishing papers in academic journals'. It has become clear these days. As a similar act, it has been reported that the right to be listed as a co-author in a paper in the proofreading stage is sold for a fee. This is discussed by organic chemist Derek Lowe, who was active in many pharmaceutical companies.

More Fakery | Science | AAAS
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/more-fakery

The act of buying co-authors' joint name rights for papers in the proofreading stage was already confirmed in 2013, and Mr. Rowe was also discussing this issue at that time. This act originated in China, and hundreds of thousands of cases have already been confirmed. This time, Mr. Rowe takes the case of Russia and considers this issue.

According to Retraction Watch , which reports and analyzes the withdrawal of articles published in academic journals, acts like those seen in China are also taking place in other countries, notably at the publisher International Publisher LLC in Russia. It is said that an example was seen. Since 2019, it has been confirmed that International Publisher LLC has openly sold and advertised author slots for upcoming scientific papers on its own site. 'This is particularly illustrious, basically placing ads for authors' open recruitment slots and pricing customers based on the location of the list of authors they want to publish and the quality of the journal in which the article will be published,' said Rowe. Shows that is different. ' The author's quota is mainly sold for a few hundred dollars (tens of thousands of yen) to nearly 5,000 dollars (about 600,000 yen).

According to a survey, out of 1009 papers published between 2019 and 2021, 434 may have been recruited for inventory. In addition, it is possible that some of them have published articles with almost the same content twice. It is estimated that during this period, advertising revenue such as the purchase of author quotas brought about more than $ 6 million (about 700 million yen) in profit.

In Russia, in 2012, following the presidential decree by President Vladimir Putin, 2.44% of the total number of scientific journal articles published in the Web of Science of the academic literature database was by Russian scholars by 2015. The goal was set that Russian universities should be ranked in at least five of the world's top 100 major universities by 2020.

To achieve the goal, the

5-100 project to improve the quality of the university (Russian Academic Excellence School Project) has started, and the university has new publishing standards for effective contracts, promotions, or financial benefits. Introduced. These measures have led Russian researchers to write more papers than ever before, but the policy of focusing solely on quantity has led to a decline in quality.

'This kind of policy by the authorities has shaped the academic outlook for the next decade,' Rowe said. He states that an industry has been formed to make up papers, and a large number of 'low-quality junk papers' created to achieve the goal have been published in academic journals.

'Some of these forged authors' papers are certainly terrible, and the publications include publishers who eat people, but as you can see from the above, Russian authorities. It is clear that they wanted to see articles published in genuine, reputable journals, although many articles were published in these journals as the authorities expected. Many of the papers published are of poor quality, and a new study found that all major academic publishers, including Elzevia, Nature, Wiley Blackwell, T & F, and OUP, have published such low-quality papers. I am. '

'All of these publishers have warned against the latest'list of authors who want to publish their papers' and are eager to take some action. In fact, a large number of papers have been withdrawn in recent years. The number of cases is increasing, but it is clear that more papers should be withdrawn. '

'But if you read the report by Elizabeth Bick, who investigated this issue, you can see how difficult it is to achieve a withdrawal. These are more of a good old data forgery issue than a fake author issue. I've seen many examples of image manipulation and duplication, but when a paper editor is warned, he forces the author to submit a new figure and do things as if nothing had happened. 'There is no problem with this method,' but it is clear that we should approach it in a different way. '

'People make mistakes, such as things go wrong, hypotheses are abandoned, and strange variables make it difficult to reproduce, but this is an honest mistake. Fake magazines, fake papers. If you continue to emit various combinations of fake author lists, fake data, etc., you will eventually regret it. No matter how many papers are withdrawn in 2022, I will have more papers. I am confident that it should be withdrawn. '