The trustworthiness, utility and value of science and medicine research face a new threat - publication pollution caused by plagiarism, fraud, and predatory publishing, warns a study.
The commentary by leading US medical ethicists Arthur Caplan from the New York University Langone Medical Center was published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
"The pollution of science and medicine by plagiarism, fraud and predatory publishing is corroding the reliability of research," Caplan noted.
"Yet neither the leadership nor those who rely on the truth of science and medicine are sounding the alarm loudly or moving to fix the problem with appropriate energy," Caplan pointed out.
In his commentary, Caplan described several causes of publication pollution. The proliferation of journals that recruit authors who pay to get their articles published is one of them.
Despite having substandard or no peer view, these "predatory publishers" now comprise an estimated 25 percent of all open-access journals, Caplan said.
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"Not only do they provide opportunities for the unscrupulous in academia and industry to pad their curriculum vitaes and bibliographies with bogus articles and editorial appointments, they also make it difficult for those involved in the assessment and promotion of scholars to discern value from junk," Caplan noted.
Plagiarism and research misconduct, like falsifying or fabricating data or concealing serious violations, are other major causes of publication pollution according to him.
"The currency of science is fragile, and allowing counterfeiters, fraudsters, bunko artists, scammers, and cheats to continue to operate with abandon in the publishing realm is unacceptable," he emphasised.