Peer review fraud—it’s not big and it’s not clever

Excerpt

‘You are only as good as your last paper’ is a truism often quoted in academic circles, and the attendant pressures to publish prolifically and rapidly in high impact journals can be overwhelming. We are aware of an extremely concerning trend towards peer review fraud (Haug 2015; Ferguson et al 2014). In recent months several publishing houses have retracted published articles after fraudulent reviews were discovered Hindawi concludes an in-depth investigation into peer review fraud. Hindawi Publishing, July 8, 2015 http://​www.​hindawi.​com/​statement/​; McCook 2015. So far these crimes appear to have been perpetrated by a very small minority of authors who have defrauded the peer review system to obtain favourable peer reviews. More concerning are agencies who not only provide a writing service for authors but also, once the manuscripts have been submitted, create fake reviewer identities to write positive reviews for these same manuscripts. …