Plagiarism and Publication Fraud Revealed by Dissernet
Abstract
Larisa Melikhova,1 Andrei Rostovtsev,2 Vasiliy Vlassov3
Objective
Dissernet is a volunteer network combating plagiarism since 2013. Since 2020, we expanded our assessment to translation plagiarism (ie, using another author’s text translated into a different language) from and into Russian and to purchasing of authorship. This report covers progress since 2016.
Design
In 2020, by tracing authors known for earlier research misconduct, we located potential international predatory journals and checked their publications for plagiarism. All known predatory journals and potential predatory journals were screened for compliance with 2 indicators: explosive growth of publications by Russian authors and the fake collaboration index. We selected predatory journals that were indexed in Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) and examined whether they contained plagiarism translated from Russian-language sources. These data were assessed and presented in a report by the Commission for Counteracting the Falsification of Scientific Research, which was appointed by the Russian Academy of Sciences.1 These journals have been expelled from Scopus and WoS. This work was continued by studying translation plagiarism from and into Ukrainian language (in collaboration with Ukrainian scientists). In 2021 to 2022, Dissernet detected another mass fraud: purchased coauthorship.2 We downloaded a database of the offers at the International Publisher website and identified publications in journals indexed in WoS and/or Scopus with abstracts that coincided with offers in the database.
Results
In the initial search, we selected 94 predatory journals, 83 of which were indexed in Scopus and 18 in WoS, and found in them 259 publications containing plagiarism translated from Russian-language sources. In examining purchased coauthorship, we identified 418 publications in journals indexed in Scopus and/or WoS that coincided with offers from International Publisher, at least 33 of which were later retracted by the journals. By May 2025, 5962 journal articles containing evidence of various types of research misconduct had been identified on the Dissernet website.3
A total of 837 authors had published articles with translation plagiarism; the most common disciplines included economics, law, and education. We detected 842 authors who bought authorship through International Publisher3; the most common disciplines included medical sciences, technical sciences, economics, and law. Authors of publications with different types of violations identified by Dissernet (N = 2880) were predominantly from Russia: 2418 people (84%). Among the remaining 462 authors, 184 (40%) were from Eastern countries (Iran, Iraq, India, China, etc) and 157 (34%) were from countries of post-Soviet space (Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, etc). All results of the work described herein are presented on the Dissernet site (in Russian).3 The publications with academic misconduct can be seen in the sections “Journals” (referring to a particular journal) and “Persons” (referring to authors of the articles).
Conclusions
The practice of translation plagiarism is much easier today due to the use of artificial intelligence. Purchasing coauthorship became popular at the international level. We consider these findings as a further step in exploration of translation plagiarism in the countries of the post-Soviet space and beyond.
References
1. Chawla DS. Top officials at Russian universities embroiled in plagiarism scandal. August 14, 2020. Nature Index. Accessed July 16, 2025. https://www.nature.com/nature-index/news/top-officials-rectors-russian-universities-embroiled-plagiarism-scandal
2. Rostovtsev A, Melikhova L. A disaster that has become normal. TRV Science. 2023;370:1, 3. Accessed July 16, 2025. https://www.trv-science.ru/2023/01/katastrofa-kotoraya-stala-normoj/
3. Dissernet. Accessed July 16, 2025. https://dissernet.org/
1Dissernet, Netanya, Israel, larisamelikhova@gmail.com; 2Dissernet, Budva, Montenegro; 3International Health Equity Agency, Tel Aviv, Israel.Conflict of Interest Disclosures
None reported.