
{"id":1225,"date":"2015-01-29T07:54:04","date_gmt":"2015-01-29T07:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/is-academic-publishing-falling-prey-to-unethical-practices\/"},"modified":"2025-04-04T14:13:47","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T14:13:47","slug":"is-academic-publishing-falling-prey-to-unethical-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/is-academic-publishing-falling-prey-to-unethical-practices","title":{"rendered":"Is academic publishing falling prey to unethical practices?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">Publishers, governments, and learned societies the world over are faced with the intractable issue of academic corruption. While the volume of scientific publishing is increasing, the \u2018publish or perish\u2019 culture is leading some researchers to indulge in fraudulent ways to get published. The magnanimity of this problem is evident from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/peer-review-rigging-should-authors-be-allowed-to-suggest-peer-reviewers\">number of peer review rigging incidents<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/is-the-journal-retraction-rate-rising\">the rising rate of retraction<\/a>. Cases of author misconduct have not spared even the most reputed peer-reviewed journals.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">To what extent can authors go in order to get published? A recently published article <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/for-sale-your-name-here-in-a-prestigious-science-journal\/\">For Sale: \u201cYour Name Here\u201d in a Prestigious Science Journal<\/a> by Charles Sefie brought to attention some rampant unethical publishing practices, most of which have roots in China. The worrisome trends in academic publication that the article highlights are:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;\">The occurrence of suspicious repetition of phrases and other irregularities<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">The author of the article found that six of the 14 articles in the May 2014 issue of <em>Diagnostic Pathology <\/em>contained phrases that were directly copied from previously published papers. For instance, one of the articles written by Chinese authors included this paragraph:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\"><em>\u201cHowever, it is necessary to conduct large sample studies using standardized unbiased genotyping methods, homogeneous gastric cancer patients and well-matched controls. Such studies taking these factors into account may eventually lead to our better, comprehensive understanding of the association between the\u00a0XPCpolymorphisms and gastric cancer risk.\u201d <\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">This looks suspiciously similar to the following content published\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;\">in a paper<\/span><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;\">some years back in the\u00a0<\/span><em style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;\">European Journal of Human Genetics<\/em><span style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;\">. The Chinese authors retained the basic sentences and filled the blanks with information relating to their research:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\"><em>\u201cHowever, it is necessary to conduct large trials using standardized unbiased methods, homogeneous PCA patients and well-matched controls, with the assessors blinded to the data. Such studies taking these factors into account may eventually lead to our better, comprehensive understanding of the association between the\u00a0CDH1\u2212160 C\/A polymorphism and PCA risk.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">Closer investigation revealed that dozens of papers by different research teams had copied the same awkwardly constructed phrase &#8220;lead to our better, comprehensive understanding&#8221; in their published papers. Interestingly, apart from copying awkwardly phrased sentences, some papers have even blindly replicated terms such as \u201cBegger\u2019s funnel plot,\u201d which is a misnomer. The authors involved in all these cases were Chinese. Surprisingly, the journal editors failed to spot these irregularities, which is probably indicative of a problem more sinister than plagiarism. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;\">Companies selling topics of research and authorship for money<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">While attemptting to uncover the dark underbelly of academic publishing, Sefie found that many online services such as MedChina offer dozens of scientific &#8220;topics for sale&#8221; and scientific journal &#8220;article transfer&#8221; agreements to authors who are looking to get published quickly in an international journal. This is reminiscent of the fairly recent scandal involving the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/authorship-for-sale\/\">discovery of an academic black market in China<\/a>. Authorship for articles that were more or less accepted in peer-reviewed journals was on sale, and the fees depended on the impact factor of the target journal and whether the paper was experimental or meta-analytic. For instance, Sefie was offered authorship of a meta-analysis linking a protein to papillary thyroid cancer slated to be published in a journal with an impact factor of 3.353 for about $15,000. A question that arises is who is the author of these articles? The authenticity of the articles is questionable as it could be the work of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/should-ghost-writers-be-given-credit-for-their-work-or-eliminated-from-science\/\">ghost authors<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;\">Chinese government funding many of the suspect papers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">It was found that 24 of the 100 tampered papers identified by\u00a0<em>Scientific American<\/em> had been funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), a governmental funding agency. A few more suspected papers had been funded by other government sources. China is <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;\">gradually emerging as a global leader in scientific research and publishing, but is faced with\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;\">several grass root level problems with respect to research management and publication ethics. Identifying this, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/will-chinas-efforts-to-reform-its-research-system-make-it-a-global-scientific-force\">the Chinese government is making reforms to its research system<\/a>. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;\">The article raises some crucial questions about the role of journals in tracking plagiarism and conducting effective peer reviews as well as the need to understand authors\u2019 problems and viewpoint.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;\">What should journals do to spot irregularities in papers?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">Journals use plagiarism software to check if any part of the paper has been plagiarized. It is, however, a fact that plagiarism check may not always be successful in detecting flaws in every paper. As Sefie points out, \u201cThe dubious papers aren&#8217;t easy to spot. Taken individually each research article seems legitimate.\u201d Since plagiarism software cannot be relied on completely, some journals have initiated a \u201csimilarity check\u201d to verify a paper\u2019s originality. Apart from this, peer reviewers and journal editors should be vigilant of any worrisome patterns in the manuscripts. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;\">Should the copying of phrases always be alluded to as plagiarism or peer review rigging?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">Is it possible that the copying of phrases and incorrect terms is not always an attempt at doctoring papers or plagiarizing content? Some people are of the opinion that unaware of plagiarism, some non-native English-speaking researchers who want to get published in an English journal may copy phrases from previously published papers to express themselves better with the belief that good language would make their papers acceptable. Therefore, copied phrases may not always be an indication of bad science. T<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;\">he fact that such papers clear peer review without rousing any suspicion casts doubt on the peer review system.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;\">Editors should pay special attention to such cases where copied text is and evaluate whether it is the research ideas or just the text that has been copied.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;\">Why are authors tempted to indulge in misconduct?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">Researchers want to get published quickly in journals with a high impact factor since publishing in reputed journals improves the chances of getting grants and tenured positions. The pressure to publish and the money at stake drive authors to resort to unethical practices. As Randy Sheckman, a Nobel Prize-winning American cell biologist, states in an article, \u201cluxury journals\u201d with high impact factor and high rejection rates \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2013\/dec\/09\/how-journals-nature-science-cell-damage-science\">aggressively curate their brands, in ways more conducive to selling subscriptions than to stimulating the most important research.<\/a>\u201d Hence, he feels researchers should not restrict their choice of journals based on impact factor and should understand that publishing good science is more important than publishing in a journal with a high impact factor.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;\">Scholarly research and publishing is flourishing owing to international collaboration among research teams, increase in the output of research, and monumental scientific advancements. However, the lack of regard for ethical publishing is a concern that needs to be addressed by every institution, government, and learned society to create a culture where credible and good-quality research is published ethically.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Publishers, governments, and learned societies the world over are faced with the intractable issue of academic corruption. While the volume of scientific publishing is increasing, the \u2018publish or perish\u2019 culture is leading some researchers to indulge in fraudulent ways to get published. The magnanimity of this problem is evident from the number of peer review [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":33313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2405],"tags":[1361],"new_categories":[],"new_tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-1225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-trends","tag-scholarly-publishing-trends"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is academic publishing falling prey to unethical practices? | Editage Insights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Publishers, governments, and learned societies the world over are faced with the intractable issue of academic corruption. 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