How to spot suspicious papers: a sleuthing guide for scientists
How to spot suspicious papers: a sleuthing guide for scientists
The Collection of Open Science Integrity Guides (COSIG) brings together 27 freely available resources that explain how to spot image duplication, citation manipulation, plagiarism, tortured phrases and other hallmarks of paper mills — businesses that produce fake papers to order. The guides also provide tips for reviewing papers in specific disciplines, including biology, chemistry, statistics and computer science.
“A lot of people assume that you need some special talent, you need eagle eyes to see things, or you need to be at your computer ten hours a day looking through the scientific literature. But really, anybody can do it,” says Richardson. “That’s one of our mantras.”