Wiley Halts Publication of 19 Journals Due to Research Fraud Controversy

Wiley confirmed that in the past two years, over 11,300 papers have been retracted from its subsidiary Hindawi’s collection. While research fraud was cited by Wiley as a factor in the decision, various reasons, including plans to integrate Hindawi with Wiley’s existing product portfolio, contributed to the shutdown.

Wiley acquired the Egyptian publisher Hindawi in January 2021 for $298 million. Initially seen as a move to provide researchers with more publishing options and enhance services for partners, revelations of academic publishing scandals within Hindawi led to thousands of retractions in 2022 and subsequent shutdowns of journals by May 2023.

In December 2023, Wiley announced the discontinuation of the Hindawi brand and plans to integrate its journals into Wiley’s portfolio. The publisher also revealed an $18 million drop in quarterly revenue due to an influx of paper mill submissions to Hindawi journals.

A report in Nature revealed that the number of research article retractions in 2023 exceeded 10,000, with many suspecting that paper mills produce hundreds of thousands of substandard papers annually. The retraction rate has doubled in the past decade.

This rampant academic fraud threatens the nearly $30 billion academic publishing industry’s legitimacy and science’s credibility. Nearly 14,000 retraction notices were issued in 2023, with three-quarters of them involving Chinese scholars.

China’s underground paper mills provide ghostwriting and publishing services for clients, producing papers for various journals. Fees vary depending on the journal’s level, resulting in a large turnover for the industry.

A report published on medRxiv highlighted the increase in fraudulent papers from 2010 to 2020, particularly in the biomedical field. China, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, and India have the highest incidence of fraudulent papers, with China accounting for 55% of the global total.

According to academic Bernhard Sabel, the industry’s scale is likely higher due to AI’s involvement. The biomedical field is particularly vulnerable to paper fraud due to the importance of published papers in professional promotions.

Mr. Sabel shared experiences of being approached by paper mills for substantial compensation, highlighting the severe fraud issues in China and other regions like Russia.

The prevalence of fraud in China, as described in “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party” by The Epoch Times, reflects a nation characterized by fraud and deceit. Even Chinese state media recognized the widespread fabrication of documents, including medical papers in top international journals.

In an environment where fraud is prevalent and trust is scarce, individuals resort to fraudulent means even for official documents, highlighting the normalization of fraud in Chinese society.