Journal Publisher Retracts Over 300 Chinese-Affiliated Papers, Citing Fake Peer-Review Process

China has retracted more scientific papers over fake peer reviews than all other nations combined, journal watchdog says

A laboratory technician works at a Tsinghua University lab in Beijing on Dec. 9, 2021. Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images

China has frequently been at the forefront of peer-review scandals, with numerous fake-paper factories a growing concern in the global scientific community. The country has retracted more scientific papers because of faked peer reviews than all other countries and territories combined, according to a scientific journal watchdog.

The scientific publisher Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) was recently forced to retract 323 Chinese-affiliated research papers that had reportedly undergone a fabricated peer-review process, according to Retraction Watch, a research journal watchdog.

In addition, many among the 323 retracted papers reportedly came from Beijing-certified top universities, called the “Double First-Class Universities.”

ACM’s Director of Publications Scott Delman told Retraction Watch that the papers appeared to have come from China’s “paper mills,” referring to the Chinese fake-paper factories.

According to the report, the now-retracted papers published by ACM were said to have come from the International Conference on Information Management and Technology (ICIMTech) held in Jakarta, Indonesia, from Aug. 19 to 20, 2021.

The retractions took place after a tipster told ACM that IEEE Xplore, another publisher of peer-reviewed journals, had also published what appeared to be the same batch of ICIMTech conference papers.

The allegation prompted an investigation that led to the mass retraction of the entire ICIMTech conference proceedings and more than 300 papers, citing integrity concerns over the papers and their peer-review process, Delman said. He added that “a company in China billing itself as a conference organizer had handled all of the peer review[s].”

According to Indonesia’s Binus University, an organizer of the 2021 ICIMTech, all accepted papers in ICIMTech 2021 would be published in the conference proceedings and submitted for publication in IEEE Xplore.

Delman said a similar case took place in 2018 when ACM received an anonymous allegation that one of its published conference papers had been generated by a computer. After an investigation, they found that a Beijing-based firm had handled the paper’s peer review.

After tracking down one of the conference organizers in Beijing named Lily Gao, who worked at the firm, Gao “informed us that the paper was peer-reviewed and after multiple requests, Gao sent a PDF of the alleged review, which appeared itself to have been falsified, based on the metadata in the PDF sent to ACM,” Delman said, according to Retraction Watch.