International Publisher Ltd. (or International Publisher LLC)[1] is an academic paper mill company that coordinates the sale of fake authorships on research papers for publication in an academic journal.[2] The company is headquartered in Moscow (Russia) with offices in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Iran, and lists its chief editor as Ksenia Badziun.[2] Its website has existed since 2018.[2]
Buyers can preselect a number of critera for their desired article. Many papers are created specifically for the purpose of selling co-authorships, and only after a sufficient number of slots are sold, and the company recruits writers to produce at least some of these papers.[3] Others may be otherwise legitimate articles; there is evidence that it also approaches authors published in high-quality journals to sell co-authorship slots.[3] Slots are priced according to the prestige of the journal and the position of the slot in the list of purported collaborators.[2]
Discovery and investigation
editThe company was exposed by scientific misconduct tracking website Retraction Watch in 2019.[1] In 2022, a report on arXiv was covered by Science Magazine detailing how International Publisher Ltd. had published hundreds of academic papers across diverse academic journals, including from respected publishing companies.[2][4] Some of these publishers have opened an investigation into the matter.[5] In 2019, the scientific indexing company Clarivate's Web of Science group sent International Publisher Ltd. a cease-and-desist letter, which was ignored.[1]
See more
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c Perron, Brian E.; Hiltz-Perron, Oliver T.; Victor, Bryan G. (2021-12-20). "Revealed: The inner workings of a paper mill". Retraction Watch. Retrieved 2022-04-12.
- ^ a b c d e Chawla, Dalmeet (2022-04-06). "Russian site peddles paper authorship in reputable journals for up to $5000 a pop". science.org. Retrieved 2022-04-12.
- ^ a b Abalkina, Anna (October 2023). "Publication and collaboration anomalies in academic papers originating from a paper mill: Evidence from a Russia‐based paper mill". Learned Publishing. 36 (4): 689–702. arXiv:2112.13322. doi:10.1002/leap.1574.
- ^ Abalkina, Anna (2022-03-20). "Publication and collaboration anomalies in academic papers originating from a paper mill: evidence from a Russia-based paper mill". arXiv:2112.13322 [cs.DL].
- ^ "Science". AAAS. Retrieved 2023-04-19.
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