‘Academic fraud may be the symptom of a much more systemic problem’ - Vox magazine OPINION - It is not surprising that a case of scientific fraud occasionally comes to light, according to associate professor Empirical Political Science Alex Lehr. ‘Many of us are doing our stinking b...

‘Academic fraud may be the symptom of a much more systemic problem’

www.voxweb.nl/en/academic-...

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Bridging the gap: explainable ai for autism diagnosis and parental support with TabPFNMix and SHAP - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - RETRACTED ARTICLE: Bridging the gap: explainable ai for autism diagnosis and parental support with TabPFNMix and SHAP

Another AI-generated, low-quality paper just got retracted from Scientific Reports — and fast. 👀⚠️
The spotlight works: media pressure accelerates corrections. But let’s be honest… there’s still a long queue of questionable studies waiting for action at @springernature.com
doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Science journal retracts study on safety of Monsanto’s Roundup: ‘Serious ethical concerns’ Paper published in 2000 found glyphosate was not harmful, while internal emails later revealed company’s influence

🧪 After 25 years, a landmark study claiming the herbicide Glyphosate (and Roundup) was “safe” has been officially retracted — due to ghost-writing and clear conflicts of interest. What was once scientific “proof” now collapses. #Science #Glyphosate #Retracted ☣️
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

The fall of a prolific science journal exposes the billion-dollar profits of scientific publishing One of the 15 publications that put out the most studies globally has been expelled from the indexing system for irregularities. Its publisher, Elsevier, has a 38% profit margin that reached $1.5 bill...

⚠️🚨 Science of the Total Environment has been removed from Web of Science in Nov. 2025 after retractions due to review-fraud and quality failures. Its publisher @ElsevierConnect raked in massive profits while “mega-publishing” suspect papers. 🤑🤡
english.elpais.com/science-tech...

The fall of a prolific science journal exposes the billion-dollar profits of scientific publishing One of the 15 publications that put out the most studies globally has been expelled from the indexing system for irregularities. Its publisher, Elsevier, has a 38% profit margin that reached $1.5 bill...

⚠️🚨 Science of the Total Environment has been removed from Web of Science in Nov. 2025 after retractions due to review-fraud and quality failures. Its publisher @ElsevierConnect raked in massive profits while “mega-publishing” suspect papers. 🤑🤡
english.elpais.com/science-tech...

Science journal retracts study on safety of Monsanto’s Roundup: ‘Serious ethical concerns’ Paper published in 2000 found glyphosate was not harmful, while internal emails later revealed company’s influence

🧪 After 25 years, a landmark study claiming the herbicide Glyphosate (and Roundup) was “safe” has been officially retracted — due to ghost-writing and clear conflicts of interest. What was once scientific “proof” now collapses. #Science #Glyphosate #Retracted ☣️
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Bridging the gap: explainable ai for autism diagnosis and parental support with TabPFNMix and SHAP - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - RETRACTED ARTICLE: Bridging the gap: explainable ai for autism diagnosis and parental support with TabPFNMix and SHAP

Another AI-generated, low-quality paper just got retracted from Scientific Reports — and fast. 👀⚠️
The spotlight works: media pressure accelerates corrections. But let’s be honest… there’s still a long queue of questionable studies waiting for action at @springernature.com
doi.org/10.1038/s415...

📉 Niche fields, early-career scholars, and emerging topics risk being sidelined — not for lack of merit, but for lack of reviewers.
🔧 Solution? Expand reviewer pools, give credit to reviewers, increase transparency — science must be evaluated on quality, not logistics.

When Reviewer Scarcity Becomes a Reason for Rejection, Scientific Integrity Is at Risk If journals reject papers due to review shortages, the peer review process itself becomes compromised.

🚨 Peer review crisis alert! When journals reject good science simply because they can’t find enough reviewers, the whole integrity of research is on the line.

www.the-scientist.com/when-reviewe...

#AcademicPublishing #PeerReview #ResearchIntegrity #SciencePolicy

This list can really assist peers in avoiding predatory publishers:

www.predatoryjournals.org @predatoryjournals.org

I have been receiving plenty of generic emails to join editorial boards in MDPI and Frontiers. At exactly the same time, friends receive the same generic emails..

1/6
🚨 Springer Nature is retracting an entire book on machine learning.
Why? It was full of plagiarized content, nonsensical claims, and had no proper peer review. 🤮
Retraction Watch: 1
Springer’s credibility: 0

‘Lipstick on a pig’: how to fight back against a peer-review bully Scientific societies, journals, editors and researchers are pushing back against mean-spirited peer reviews.

Scientific societies, journals, editors and researchers are pushing back against mean-spirited peer reviews

go.nature.com/4mXJjn6

🕵️‍♂️ Design isn’t just cosmetic. Visual cues can help flag low-quality or predatory journals—especially when screening large volumes. Content still matters, but the look tells a story too. #OpenScience #ResearchIntegrity

🧐 Predatory articles are statistically:

~half the length (fewer pages & characters)
Using “default” fonts (Arial, Calibri)
Standard A4 pages, little typographic variety
Simpler metadata, less polished

Evaluating the visual design of science publications—a quantitative approach comparing legitimate and predatory journal papers - Scientometrics The rise of predatory publishing poses a significant challenge to the integrity of scientific research, potentially undermining the credibility of scholarly communications. As parts of the academic co...

📄 Study compared ~443 “legit” vs ~555 suspected predatory articles. Predatory ones tend to be shorter, use common office fonts, stick to A4 page size, and show simpler metadata. Visual fingerprints can help spot low-quality journals. 👀

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Scientific publishing needs urgent reform to retain trust in research process | Letters Letters: Readers respond to an article on how too many low-quality papers and journals are being churned out

🧵1: Peer Review Is Cracking. Researchers are churning out papers to survive. Peer reviewers are overwhelmed. Editors chase quantity, not quality. It's not science—it’s a paper factory. Reform is urgent, or public trust will collapse.
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

If Trump wants to eliminate fraud at universities, why gut research integrity agencies? - The Boston Globe Universities, journals, regulators all have a role in identifying scientific misconduct.

"If Trump wants to eliminate fraud at universities, why gut research integrity agencies?"

🔥
#ResearchIntegrity
#TrustInScience
#AcademicTwitter
#AIforScience
#OpenScience
#FakeJournals
#PredatoryPublishing
#AIethics
#ResponsibleAI
#FutureOfScience
#AIforGood

🧵5. This is the future: humans + AI, safeguarding the credibility of research. Because science without trust is just noise. 🌍✨ #AIforGood #AcademicIntegrity #FutureOfScience

🧵4. About 24% false positives. Meaning: the AI isn’t a judge—it’s a first line of defense. Humans still need to verify. Think ‘radar’ not ‘verdict.’ 🛰️ #ResponsibleAI #AcademicTwitter

🧵3. From ~15,200 journals, the AI flagged 1,400+ as questionable. Over 1,000 raised serious concerns. That’s a LOT of shaky ground for researchers to step on. 😬 #TrustInScience #AIethics

🧵2. Instead of reading papers, the AI checks websites: design quality, missing editors, dodgy language, weird citations. It’s not judging content—it’s spotting red flags in the ecosystem. 🚨 #OpenScience #FakeJournals

Estimating the predictability of questionable open-access journals AI screening of journals identifies over a thousand questionable journals, helping experts review where it is needed most.

🧵1. Predatory journals aren’t just a nuisance—they erode trust in science. A new #AI tool just scanned ~15k journals & flagged over 1k suspicious outlets. Could this be the watchdog science needs? 🧠🔎 #ResearchIntegrity #Science

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🧵4: It's time to stop counting publications and start measuring trust, transparency, and societal value.
#OpenScience #ReformScience

🧵3: Alternatives exist. Global South Is Leading the Way.
Latin America’s @scielo.org and the Diamond OA Alliance prove publishing can be free to read & free to publish. Science doesn’t need billion-dollar intermediaries. It needs public infrastructure and values over volume.

🧵2: Open Access? More Like Open Wallet.
OA was supposed to democratize science.
Instead, universities now pay up to $10K per article in APCs—feeding publishers with profit margins over 35%.
The result? Pay-to-play research and rising global inequality in who gets to publish.

Scientific publishing needs urgent reform to retain trust in research process | Letters Letters: Readers respond to an article on how too many low-quality papers and journals are being churned out

🧵1: Peer Review Is Cracking. Researchers are churning out papers to survive. Peer reviewers are overwhelmed. Editors chase quantity, not quality. It's not science—it’s a paper factory. Reform is urgent, or public trust will collapse.
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

image of journal article in the MDPI journal Animals: Possible Anxiolytic Effects of Cannabidiol (CBD) Administration on Feline Responses to a Fear Response Test by Nobuo Masataka

How science should NOT be done: testing the effects of CBD on cat fear...by scaring the cats so much they urinated...and no IACUC (institutional animal use committee) approval? Why? oh, because it's a predatory MDPI/Animals journal...calling @amcell.bsky.social

www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/15...

6/6
🧵 Bottom line:
📉 Springer Nature’s latest retraction is a symptom of a bigger crisis in academic publishing.
📚 Just because it’s a book doesn’t mean it’s science.
Retractions like this? More are coming.

5/6
🤖 In the age of AI-generated content, Springer must tighten up or become a publishing landfill.
The bar for book publishing should not be lower than journals.
But here we are.