Paper mills

Introduction

TipDefinition

An organisation that sells authorship for fraudulent or low-quality articles and guarantees their placement in journals. Paper mills may also sell citations (McIntosh et al. 2026).

Example of a paper mill advertisement. Source: https://abalkina.com/paper-mills/tanu-pro/.

Key resources

Note“A Call for Research to Address the Threat of Paper Mills”

Explanation of the issue by Byrne et al. (2024).

Note“Paper mill challenges”

Explanation of the issue by Parker et al. (2024).

Bibliography

Byrne, Jennifer A., Anna Abalkina, Olufolake Akinduro-Aje, et al. 2024. “A Call for Research to Address the Threat of Paper Mills.” PLOS Biology 22 (11): e3002931. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002931.

McIntosh, Leslie D., Anna Abalkina, Achal Agrawal, et al. 2026. “Forensic Scientometrics (FoSci) Report 2026: Understanding, Detecting, and Documenting Manipulation in the Research Ecosystem.” Version 3. Preprint, Figshare, July 17. 1012969 Bytes. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.32178456.v3.

Parker, Lisa, Stephanie Boughton, Lisa Bero, and Jennifer A. Byrne. 2024. “Paper Mill Challenges: Past, Present, and Future.” Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 176 (December): 111549. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2024.111549.