Stating that scientific fraud has now evolved beyond individual actions into an organized structure, Üsküdar Üniversitesi Rector's Advisor Prof. Dr. Tayfun Uzbay, said, “This has now turned into a large industry where money is also involved, and these are called publication factories. A number of publications are produced. In this way, some individuals can acquire more articles than they desire in a very short time.”
Drawing attention to the latest article addressing this issue, Uzbay stated that the prevalence of fake publications primarily in the fields of medicine and health sciences poses a significant risk to public health. Uzbay said, “Unfortunately, these types of publications are seen more frequently in the fields of medical sciences and health sciences.”
Üsküdar Üniversitesi Rector's Advisor and Head of the Department of Pharmacology at the Faculty of Medicine, Prof. Dr. Tayfun Uzbay, explained that unethical practices in the scientific world have reached alarming proportions.
The Scientific World has Suffered Ethical Erosion Globally for the Last 20 Years
Prof. Dr. Tayfun Uzbay stated that the scientific world has experienced a serious ethical erosion for the last 20 years, and this problem is also proven by articles published in internationally prestigious scientific journals. Prof. Dr. Uzbay drew attention to the striking work by meta-scientist (science of science) Reese Richardson from Northwestern University, published in PNAS and also highlighted by Science magazine.
Prof. Dr. Uzbay expressed the following regarding the picture revealed by this research:
“In his assessment, Richardson unfortunately reached some very striking data, revealing that scientific publications are now starting to become a large industry with unethical deviations, and many fake or unqualified publications are easily published even in reputable journals. One of the important issues they identified in their study is that editors in respected journals like PLoS One, which we all admire, operate a biased peer-review mechanism. What do I mean by this? Editors have focused on the articles of certain authors, facilitating their publication without much scrutiny. This situation is clearly demonstrated in the study. As the research deepens, a rather interesting network of relationships emerges. Within this network, many unfortunate outcomes that undermine respect for science are reached, ranging from fabricated data being easily turned into a normal article and published, to a 3-4 author study being expanded to 8-9 authors and authorship positions being sold. This is actually a very impactful study. It has not yet been widely recognized in Turkey, perhaps because it is very new.”
Fake Science is Increasingly Becoming an Industry
Prof. Dr. Uzbay also mentioned that science journalist Dr. Kathleen O’Grady, working at Edinburgh University, penned another article on this topic, stating, “She analyzes the said article and adds some additional data to it. O’Grady emphasizes, and clearly explains, that science —especially fake science— is increasingly turning into an industry. Moreover, she publishes this in Science, one of the most important scientific journals considered to be at the pinnacle of its field. This shows us that the issue has attracted intense attention from scientists worldwide, prestigious scientific journals, and the scientific community. Furthermore, this situation has now started to become a serious problem.”
Scientific Fraud is Now Organized!
Prof. Dr. Uzbay stated that scientific fraud has now evolved beyond individual actions into an organized structure, explaining the functioning of this system, referred to as 'publication factories,' as follows:
“This has now turned into a large industry where money is also involved, and these are called publication factories. A number of publications are produced. In this way, some individuals can acquire more articles than they desire in a very short time. There are even some citation networks. They cite each other reciprocally. Journal editors collaborate to publish their articles. These articles are published without undergoing serious scrutiny, or if the articles have flaws, those flaws are corrected fictitiously rather than scientifically in laboratories, and the articles are published. ‘Well, there are honest and qualified scientists who publish, but there are also those who engage in unethical practices. What happens when they are caught?’ This is the main problem. These individuals are exposed, but often they do not face serious sanctions. In some serious institutions, their employment may be terminated, but mostly they do not receive heavy penalties. Even if they are pushed out of the academic world, this is no longer as deterrent as it used to be. Today, we see that such unethical practices are gradually starting to become legitimized. This is one of the important points underlined in both articles. Paid publishing and publishing articles through intermediaries have now become increasingly common.”
Fake Publications Pose a Risk to Public Health
Prof. Dr. Uzbay emphasized that the prevalence of fake publications primarily in the fields of medicine and health sciences poses a significant risk to public health, and continued as follows:
“There is another, more distressing issue. Unfortunately, these types of publications are seen more frequently in the fields of medical sciences and health sciences. Recently, a lot of attention has been drawn to messenger RNA and microRNA topics in particular. It is reported that a large number of fake publications have been found in biology laboratories, especially in microRNA studies. In the field of health sciences, misleading and fake articles are also seen published on extremely important subjects like cancer. Approximately seven years ago, in 2017, an important article titled “Hyperprolific Authors” was published in Nature magazine — one of the top publications in the scientific world. This article was penned by the famous Stanford University professor Dr. Ioannidis. The article highlighted that some scientists were reaching unbelievably high annual publication numbers. For example, it mentioned individuals publishing 80 articles a year. This, by a simple calculation, means one person publishing an article every five days on average, which is practically impossible. Such productivity could only be a result of specific networks and mutual interest relationships.”
Prof. Dr. Uzbay noted that the foundations of the current situation were laid back then, stating, “In those years, it was more about scientists with good relationships mutually supporting each other's publications through a 'sympathetic channel'; today, this situation has turned into an industry where fraud and money circulate. This constitutes the most dangerous dimension of the issue. So, what should be done in the face of this situation? It seems that academia, universities, and scientific organizations need to re-evaluate their appreciation and reward mechanisms in science.”
We Must Encourage and Reward Quality Research
Addressing the situation in Turkey, Prof. Dr. Uzbay concluded his words as follows:
“In our country, during staff appointments and the awarding of scientific prizes, we generally look primarily at publication and citation counts. However, when we look at these numbers, we do not conduct an in-depth evaluation; we do not pay enough attention to the content of the studies, what scientific questions they ask, or what problems they focus on. Consequently, we have scientists who can publish in a wide variety of fields, on different subjects; but whose focus is not clear, yet they have a high number of publications and citations. Every year, in the lists published according to the H-index, which ranks scientists worldwide, we have many scientists who fall into the top 2% bracket. However, despite this, why Turkey does not possess as strong a production capacity in terms of scientific and technological development as high-level countries is also a matter that needs to be questioned.”
We Must Re-evaluate Our Academic Reward and Staff Appointment Systems!
Therefore, Uzbay said that we need to re-evaluate our academic reward and staff appointment systems, stating, “Instead of number and score-oriented evaluation, it is important for us to prioritize studies produced by the scientist's own efforts and in which they are directly involved; to encourage and reward such quality research. Otherwise, in the near future, faith in science —which was already seriously damaged during the COVID-19 period— will weaken further. This means that society will stop trusting science, superstitions will regain strength, and society will fall under the influence of charlatans. This situation will negatively affect both public health and the country's development.”