Fake Science Epidemic Threatens Integrity of Research Worldwide

As of November 10th, 2025, a concerning epidemic of fake science publications has been plaguing the academic world. According to a professor of medical psychology at the Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg, the number of fabricated research papers has now exceeded 100,000 per year in the biomedical field alone.

This surge in fraudulent studies is being driven by a combination of factors. On one side, there are dishonest authors and institutions seeking to inflate their reputations through high publication counts and citations. On the other, profit-driven publishers are charging exorbitant fees to process these papers, creating an incentive for industrial-scale production of fake science.

The collateral damage of this crisis is far-reaching. Scientific analyses, experiments, and clinical trials are failing more often, as technical knowledge becomes less precise or even misleading. This can lead to harm for patients, environmental damage, and slower economic development. The deluge of low-quality papers is also overwhelming the peer review system, causing sloppy oversight.

Experts warn that if nothing is done, the manipulation, disinformation, and fakery could eventually lead to a collapse of trust in science, a critical pillar of modern knowledge-based economies and societies. A global plan for reforming the science publishing industry is now being proposed, including measures to end the "publish or perish" culture and establish independent fraud detection mechanisms.