Fake Neuroscience Papers Detected By AI-Trained Tool

 Recently scientists and researchers disclosed big news after using an AI-trained computer for neuroscience paper publications. They noticed some common signs indicating fake papers submission, even in reputed journals. These fake papers are being submitted by researchers so they can boost their academic profiles and resume. The tool was able to identify multiple red flags in a paper with about 90% of accuracy.

28% of Content Might be Plagiarized.

The AI-trained tool was used to check for 5000 Neuroscience and medical papers back in 2020. During the scrutinization, about 28% of the content was plagiarized. Based on the sample testing, there’s a probability that out of 1.3 million neuroscience papers submitted across journals, about 300,000 would have been fake or flagged.

If the study is applied to 100 papers, about 63 were said to be fake, and 37 were genuine. Although the whole research/study is still in the pre-print phase, if the news somehow proved to be true, this could be a huge matter for the research and academic world. That’s because all these papers got past the peer-review stage, and that’s concerning.

“Too Hard to Believe”

When the matter was discussed by one of the authors and neuropsychologists, Bernhard Sabel (Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg, Germany), he was quite shocked by the results. Although, like other researchers, he has been facing fake paper submissions too, the numbers were alarming. He also mentions the involvement of paper mills, which might be using AI-oriented tools to generate and sell papers.

Furthermore, many publications were deceived into accepting these poor-quality papers. The reason why these papers were published (despite the strict rules in reputed journals) was that the paper quality was just right to pass the peer-review state. However, just right is not enough. Also, if the foul play didn’t work, paper mills would even offer payments to the editor, so the research paper could get accepted by the journal. Several editors have received emails for such requests, and there’s still counting.

Top Countries Involved in Fake Paper Submission

When the reports were analyzed to identify which country had the highest number of potential fakes, China topped the list. Some other countries were Egypt, Turkey, Russia and India. Scientists and researchers also blamed the rising trend of the AI content generator – ChatGPT – for fake papers. They further highlighted how such tools could disrupt the whole system and become a possible threat in the future. Although there’s still a lot to find out, as per the recent findings and speculations, the situation is concerning. It’s high time that the academic world gets a more rigid and strict review system to examine papers thoroughly.