It’s no secret that science today is plagued by huge problems of data fraud. For example, we recently learned, “Scientific Journals Can’t Keep Up With Flood of Fake Papers — ‘Paper mills’ churn out fraudulent studies faster than publishers can retract them” (Wall Street Journal).

An unexpected source of corruption was discussed at The College Fix:

The problem lies with editors, too, the study found.

“We uncover footprints of activities connected to scientific fraud that extend beyond the production of fake papers to brokerage roles in a widespread network of editors and authors who cooperate to achieve the publication of scientific papers that escape traditional peer-review standards,” the study states. (August 27, 2025)

From the open-access paper from earlier this month: “Our final analysis suggests that this ability to evade interventions is enabling the number of fraudulent publications to grow at a rate far outpacing that of legitimate science.”

Part of the problem seems to be that many honest scientists are sleepwalking around the seriousness of the situation:

There is a perception among many practicing scientists that scientific fraud is a rare phenomenon resulting from the actions of isolated actors. Mounting evidence, however, suggests the possibility that fraud is a more pervasive phenomenon; that defectors target journals to facilitate the publication of fraudulent science at scale. [citations omitted]

R.A.K. Richardson, S.S. Hong, J.A. Byrne, T. Stoeger, & L.A.N. Amaral, The entities enabling scientific fraud at scale are large, resilient, and growing rapidly, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 122 (32) e2420092122, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2420092122 (2025).

Or they think it just doesn’t happen on their watch. The study results paint a different picture though and the authors warn:

The trends we expose forecast serious risks ahead for the scientific enterprise. Large groups of editors and authors appear to have cooperated to facilitate publishing fraud. Networks of linked fraudulent articles suggest industrial scale of production. Organizations selling contract cheating services anticipate and counter deindexing and other interventions by literature aggregators. The literature in some fields may have already been irreparably damaged by fraud. Finally, the scale of activity in the enterprise of scientific fraud already exceeds the scope of current punitive measures designed to prevent fraud. Currently implemented punitive measures are not addressing the tide of fraudulent science. [Internal references omitted.] R.A.K. Richardson et al.

This isn’t a problem that rhetoric about Science! will solve. As we’ve said elsewhere, the calls are coming from inside the house.