19/08/2025
Scientific fraud isn’t rare anymore.
A new PNAS study reveals just how organized it’s become:
• Large, coordinated networks of paper mills, brokers and predatory journals are producing fake research at scale.
• The growth of fraudulent publications now outpaces legitimate science.
• Certain disciplines are being deliberately targeted.
• Many of these papers are polished enough to slip past peer review unnoticed.
Why it matters:
Every fraudulent paper erodes trust in science.
Editors are under pressure to process manuscripts quickly, making detection harder.
Where AI helps:
Tools like Paperpal Preflight for Editorial Desk act as an early warning system, flagging paper-mill patterns, data anomalies and unethical authorship before peer review begins.
It’s not a replacement for human judgment, it’s a safety net that catches what busy eyes might miss.
🔗 Here's the full study for those who wish to explore: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2420092122
Because threats to research integrity are evolving, we’re extending an offer to help journals strengthen their first line of defense. The first three EICs, publishers or integrity sleuths to DM us will receive 50 free PPE vouchers for trial in their editorial workflow.
