A new study has found that fake journal articles are being churned out by “paper mills” at an alarming rate. The statistical analysis, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals that these shady organizations are producing papers with fabricated data and doctored images on an industrial scale.
The study’s findings suggest that the number of fake articles is doubling every year and a half. This trend has been ongoing for years, despite warnings from whistle-blowers and journal editors about the increasing threat to scientific integrity.
“This is a disaster for science,” says Luís A. Nunes Amaral, a data scientist at Northwestern University and lead author of the study. “If left unchecked, this will destroy the very foundations of our field.”
Science relies on trust in previous discoveries, allowing new scientists to build upon existing knowledge. However, with fake articles flooding the scientific literature, this trust is being eroded.
The alarming rise in fake journal articles has been growing since the 2010s, with watchdog organizations flagging increasingly suspicious papers. The factors driving this increase have only intensified over time.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/science/04hs-science-papers-fraud-research-paper-mills.html