International Congress on
Peer Review and Scientific Publication

Tim Kersjes¹

Objective

The rise of paper mills presents a significant problem for academic publishers. It is suspected that paper mill actors not only pollute the literature by publishing low-quality or even fake articles; they also try and enhance the credibility of their product by citing their own paper mill articles. This reinforces their credibility and attractiveness for paying customers. Papers mills also attempt to subvert the peer review process by suggesting their own actors as peer reviewers. This study is an analysis of how one successful paper mill used journals that rely on author-suggested reviewers to increase their output and credibility through the creation and use of fake authors and reviewers. The objective was to analyze how these fake personas amplified this paper mill’s success.

Design

Following a research integrity investigation by publisher Springer Nature, 55 articles in 4 of their journals (Boundary Value Problems, Journal of Inequalities and Applications, Fixed Point Theory and Applications, and Advances in Difference Equations) were identified to be compromised by a single paper mill, probably operating out of China. These articles were published between September 2013 and August 2020 in journals that asked submitting authors to suggest reviewers. In total, 26 fake personas were identified by confirming with their listed affiliations that these authors were in fact not with these institutions. Network mapping identified the relations between the fake personas and how these aided their publications, as well as citation patterns between articles authored and reviewed by these fake personas.

Results

The analysis demonstrated that this paper mill successfully introduced 2 fake personas early on by managing to get these personas as co-authors on published articles. This allowed the paper mill to submit an increasing number of articles (starting with 2 submissions in 2013 to a maximum of 12 submissions in 2016) with new fake personas, with previously published fake personas as suggested reviewers. Because these fake personas infiltrated the peer review process, more fake authors ended up in the published literature, allowing the paper mill to increase its publication output. Of the 26 fake personas, 13 managed to end up as published authors. For these 55 articles, 13 fake personas that are published authors were invited to review for a total of 68 times. In contrast, 13 fake personas without a publication record were only invited 25 times in total. Additionally, 48 of the 55 paper mill articles published by these fake personas cited 2 or more articles by other fake personas in an apparent attempt to further build credibility.

Conclusions

Fake personas can serve as both authors and reviewers. Once the paper mill has established a fake persona as credible, it can be used to amplify the credibility of additional fake personas, allowing a paper mill to build a network of fake authors and reviewers to subvert the peer review process. Identity verification and citation analysis may prevent paper mills from gaining success in this way.

¹Springer Nature, Dordrecht, the Netherlands, tim.kersjes@ springernature.com.

Conflict of Interest Disclosures

Tim Kersjes is a full-time employee of Springer Nature and owns Springer Nature stock. He also serves on the trustee board of the Committee on Publication Ethics.