Papermill Detection Software

It is not at all surprising in this era of “fake” everything, that there would suddenly be a business need for “fake paper” detection tools. Along with “plagiarism detection” and “image duplication or image manipulation detection”, another potential risk to the integrity of the scientific record that many publishers are now proactively on the lookout for during the manuscript submission process is “papermill detection”.  

According to this COPE blog post on “Potential paper mills“:

“This term describes the process by which manufactured manuscripts are submitted to a journal for a fee on behalf of researchers with the purpose of providing an easy publication for them, or to offer authorship for sale. The concerns with these submissions include faked or manipulated data/images, the use of stock images, substantial authorship changes, and plagiarism, which is not detected because it comes from a translated version of another article.” 

Publishers are already starting to incorporate these tools into their workflows. For example, a year ago, in April 2023, the STM Scientific Integrity hub (that provides tools/services for publishers in a cloud-based environment) launched their papermill detection tool as a:

“stand-alone application that allows publishers to automatically screen uploaded papers against key indicators that suggest that the manuscript has or may have originated from a paper mill”.

This year, in March 2024, Wiley announced that its journals will soon be piloting an “AI-powered Papermill Detection Service” integrated in their manuscript submission system.

Tools like “Papermill Alarm” have been reported on in the literature as far back as 2022:

Else H. ‘Papermill alarm’ software flags potentially fake papers. Nature. 2022 Sep 23. doi: 10.1038/d41586-022-02997-x. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36151206. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02997-x

Although this type of detection is not something that individual authors would need to use pre-emptively, other tools  – like iThenticate, a plagiarism detection tool – are now being subscribed to and made available to all potential authors in the MSK community via the MSK Library.

Questions? Be sure to Ask Us at the MSK Library!

An Article DOI is Not Proof of Digital Preservation

A March 2024 Nature paper entitled “More than 2 million research papers have disappeared from the Internet” shed some much needed light on the fact that just because an article is published in a journal that assigns DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers), authors should NOT automatically assume that this publisher is also taking the needed measures to ensure that the digital content (that its DOIs are pointing to) is being preserved.

And journal content that is not digitally preserved can – and has, as per these articles – gone missing from the Internet:

Learn more about how to ensure that your publications are digitally archived for posterity so that they never disappear from the Internet.

Questions? Ask Us at the MSK Library!

Advancing Authorship Webinar: The Impact of AI on the Scholarly Publishing Landscape

The release of ChatGPT has generated considerable attention to generative AI. Those involved with scholarly publishing must be vigilant in understanding and managing AI technological developments that impact their work.

How will publishers maintain the integrity of the scholarly record? Manage and weed out non-existent articles? Detect research faked by sophisticated AIs? Adopt and implement policies that address AI?

Join us for presentations and conversation on how JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) is evaluating generative AI. JAMA’s Editor in Chief and Executive Managing Editor will share their experiences about what they have been seeing in the editorial process and the new policies developed around use of large language models (LLMs) in manuscript development and peer review. In addition, hear a preliminary view of generative AI from a member of the Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Compliance and Internal Audit department.

Bring your questions about this growing issue as there will be time for attendees to participate in an interactive Q&A.

Date: Wednesday, October 4, 2023
Time: 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM, EST
Zoom Webinar: Register Now

Speaker Bios:

Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, PhD, MD, MAS, is the 17th Editor in Chief of JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) and the JAMA Network. She is the Lee Goldman, MD Endowed Professor of Medicine and Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Bibbins-Domingo is a general internist, cardiovascular disease epidemiologist, and a national leader in prevention and interventions to address health disparities. She is a physician-scientist who has used observational studies, pragmatic trials, and simulation modeling to examine effective clinical, public health, and policy interventions aimed at prevention.

Dr. Bibbins-Domingo previously served as the inaugural Vice Dean for Population Health and Health Equity in the UCSF School of Medicine and the Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UCSF. She co-founded the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital that generates actionable research to advance health equity and reduce health disparities in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, and nationally.

Dr. Bibbins-Domingo was a member of the US Preventive Services Task Force from 2010-2017 and led the Task Force as the vice-chair and chair from 2014-2017. She is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Annette Flanagin, RN, MA, FAAN, is Executive Managing Editor and Vice President of Editorial Operations for JAMA and the JAMA Network.

Before joining JAMA, Ms. Flanagin held editorial positions with other journals published for health care professionals, and before that, she practiced cardiology nursing. She is a graduate of Georgetown University, with a BS in nursing and an MA in English Literature.

Ms, Flanagin is Past President of the Council of Science Editors (CSE) and has been honored with the CSE Award for Meritorious Achievement and the John P. McGovern Award for preeminent contribution to medical communication by the American Medical Writers Association. She serves as the Executive Director of the International Congresses on Peer Review and Scientific Publication and as Co-Director of the African Journal Partnership Program. She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and a member of the board of STM: International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers. Ms. Flanagin has co-developed a number of guidelines and policies to guide authors, editors, and publishers in scientific publication and is a committee member and author of the AMA Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors. She participates in research, lectures, and publishes on issues related to scientific publication for authors, editors, and publishers.

Philip Watson, PhD, is the course director for the Multi-Institutional Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) program sponsored by Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK), Weill Cornell Medicine, Rockefeller University, and Hospital for Special Surgery. He is an Associate Director in Compliance and Internal Audit at MSK. Previously, he was an Assistant Lab Member (Assistant Attending Biologist) at MSK, with a research interest in prostate cancer.