Paper Mills for research writing and publication: A threat to the integrity of science

Abstract

The reliability of publication affects evidence-based science. In recent years, science has come under increasing scrutiny for its trustworthiness because of the misconduct of a few researchers, authors, and publishers involved in the unethical behaviour of research writing and publication. There has been an exponential increase in research output worldwide, and many publications are of questionable credibility due to “Paper Mills.” These are profit-oriented, illegal, and unethical organisations working in the shadow to produce papers on demand, or sell readymade papers for a price. All stakeholders: researchers, authors, readers, journal publishers, and all of the academia need to be aware of “Paper Mills” to minimise scientific misconduct.

Paper mills in medical research: a serious ethical issue

“…1 Maintaining ethics and truthfulness in research manuscripts not only adds valuable information in global body of knowledge but also encourages and inspires other researchers as well. 2 With passage of time, these practices have become complex in nature and hard to identify. One of such research dereliction is termed as "Paper Mills".…”