Fraud driven by flawed metrics threatens mathematics, say researchers urging change.
An international group of researchers led by Ilka Agricola, a mathematics professor at the University of Marburg in Germany, has examined widespread misconduct in the publication of mathematical research. Working on behalf of the German Mathematical Society (DMV) and the International Mathematical Union (IMU), the team uncovered years of coordinated fraudulent activity.
Their findings, released on the preprint platform arXiv and later detailed in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society (AMS), have drawn significant attention and concern within the mathematics community.
To address this issue, the study also outlines recommendations for improving how mathematical research results are published.
Today, the quality of academic research is often judged less by its actual scientific contribution and more by commercial metrics such as publication counts, citation numbers, or a journal’s “reputation” (impact factor).
These metrics are generated by private companies using opaque methods, with little to no oversight from the scientific community, and are marketed globally to promote their databases. Some fraudulent businesses even specialize in helping researchers and institutions manipulate these indicators for profit. The incentives are clear: higher rankings—such as those affecting universities—lead to greater funding opportunities, higher tuition fees, and more international applicants.
The result is a flood of publications designed only to inflate metrics rather than advance knowledge. Many of these papers go unread, contain errors, or lack any genuine scientific value.
Distorted rankings and the rise of “megajournals”
The study presents several telling examples. In one case, Clarivate Inc., a major provider of citation data, reported in 2019 that the university with the highest number of “world-class” mathematics researchers was an institution in Taiwan that does not even offer a mathematics program.
Meanwhile, so-called megajournals—publications that accept virtually any paper as long as authors pay a fee—now produce more articles annually than all reputable, non-paywall mathematics journals combined. Behind this system, anonymous brokers openly sell fabricated metrics, offering everything from prewritten articles to citation boosts for a price.
“‘Fake science’ is not only annoying, it is a danger to science and society,” emphasizes IMU Secretary General Prof. Christoph Sorger. “Because you don’t know what is valid and what is not. Targeted disinformation undermines trust in science and also makes it difficult for us mathematicians to decide which results can be used as a basis for further research.”
DMV President Prof. Jürg Kramer added: “The recommendations developed by the commission are a call to all of us to work toward a system change.”
Reference: “How to Fight Fraudulent Publishing in the Mathematical Sciences: Joint Recommendations of the IMU and the ICIAM” by Ilka Agricola, Lynn Heller, Wil Schilders, Moritz Schubotz, Peter Taylor, and Luis Vega. 11 September 2025, arXiv
DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2509.09877
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8 Comments
I bet this has some interesting knock-on effects when these journals and articles are used in AI training.
{^_^}
The article doesn’t touch on AI, and only links to the arXiv abstract, which likewise leaves it out. The full AMS entry has more than a few words to say, q.v. :
https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/202509/rnoti-p1038.pdf
The curse of the internet strikes once again.
Here’s a suggestion. Anyone whose name is associated in one of those fraudulent articles is immediately fired, loses tenure and is blacklisted across the entire academic spectrum forever. That should solve the problem fairly quickly.
You think, maybe, this is also what is wrong with contemporary physics??
This is what is wrong with most of contemporary scientific publishing, anything goes as long as leads to money
The internet has no regulation… people can claim what ever the want and present whatever they want and dress it up making it look official and there is nothing in place to stop them or hold them accountable.
This is only important to scientists . The same megajournals have ongoing campaigns designed to create doubt in the validity of science all together. Flat earthers , fake moon landing, everthing space based. We seem to be entering a time when science is losing favor altogether. Growing amounts of people are starting to lose favor with scientific techniques, aligning them with conspiracy theories. People are valuing their beliefs more then empirical evidence. A new dark ages may be at hand.