Aries Systems Corporation

In recent years, academic publishing has faced an insidious threat: the rise of paper mills. Paper mills – organizations or individuals that produce, facilitate, and profit off research fraud – come in various forms. These include papers that describe false research, papers that describe real (plagiarized) research but with sold authorship, and the manipulation of fake guest Editors or fake Reviewers in the peer review process. These counterfeit articles and deceptive practices not only compromise the integrity of scholarly publishing, but also add significant strain to editorial workflows as Editors and editorial boards face growing pressure to identify and manage these submissions. As valuable journal resources are spent manually screening incoming submissions, the threat of fraudulent content reaching publication is a scary reality that is all too common. This introduces its own series of risks including costly retractions, damage to the journal’s reputation, and harm to the communities that rely on the integrity of published research.

Collaborating for an Integrity-Driven Solution

With more journals being actively targeted by paper mills, there is a pressing need for technical solutions that can identify suspicious activities and do so early enough in the workflow to assist with the workload. To address this challenge, Aries Systems and Clear Skies have partnered to integrate Papermill Alarm with Editorial Manager® (EM) to offer publishers an automated paper mill detection service directly within the existing editorial workflow. Upon submission in EM, Papermill Alarm is automatically triggered to conduct an analysis of the manuscript, which is then reported back to EM for the Editor’s review. Leveraging advanced data analysis, network analysis, and Artificial Intelligence (AI), Papermill Alarm identifies content with features and patterns consistent with organized fraud. Three classes of color-coded alerts are raised to journal Editors indicating varying levels of concern, based on the degree of similarity to known paper mill products along with any additional context available.

Why Papermill Alarm + Editorial Manager?

Clear Skies’ Papermill Alarm, recently honored with the 2024 ALPSP Award for Innovation in Publishing, is the industry’s first service dedicated to detecting organized paper mill activity. Through the integration with Aries’ Editorial Manager, scholarly journals can proactively uphold ethical publishing standards and research integrity in their daily operations. The power of this collaboration is demonstrated in four key areas:

• Save Time with Seamless Automation: Analysis is automatically triggered in real-time upon submission, reducing time spent on manual technical checks. Results are seamlessly accessible from EM directly in existing workflow

• Supports Informed Decision-Making: Convenient alerts flag potential concerns while providing helpful context, allowing Editors to target investigations and make cognizant judgement calls

• Unparalleled Accuracy: Minimizes false positives and negatives with precision-engineered algorithms and sophisticated advanced data/network analytics, which continuously adapts to emerging fraud techniques and evolving threats

• Data Security and Peace of Mind: Sensitive journal data is securely managed while promoting confidence in published works so Editors can remain focused on journal growth

Navigating the Complexities of Paper Mill Detection

Through Papermill Alarm, Clear Skies offers more than just an alert system — it provides valuable insights to help Editors make informed, nuanced decisions. For example, if a paper cites one suspicious reference, this might raise a different level of concern compared to a paper citing numerous references to questionable sources. Similarly, an Author with a retraction history paired with credible publications presents a unique scenario for Editors. Clear Skies provides this critical context, helping editorial teams navigate the grey areas of paper mill detection.

As this technology becomes more widely adopted, Editors and industry leaders are learning to interpret these alerts within a broader context and establish standards. The community is actively discussing considerations and outstanding uncertainties in play – such as what constitutes sufficient grounds for further scrutiny, and how should editors weigh a flagged author’s retracted paper against their other contributions. As the publishing community grows more adept at interpreting paper mill signals over time, we can expect to see an industry-wide improvement in best practices and decision-making strategies. 

While Papermill Alarm offers editors powerful, automated detection capabilities, Clear Skies maintains a crucial stance: humans should always make the final call. Technology can assist by identifying suspect activity, but Editors bring expertise, contextual knowledge, and judgment that no algorithm can replicate. Clear Skies underscores this by recommending that Editors always consider alerts from Papermill Alarm as one part of a larger review process.

Empowering Editors to Support Integrity

The partnership between Clear Skies and Aries Systems represents a significant advancement toward safeguarding the integrity of academic publishing. For journals and Editors facing the challenges of fraudulent research, the Papermill Alarm and EM integration offers a much-needed line of defense, empowering Editors to make data-informed decisions right when it matters most – within their existing workflows. Available as the latest tool within the Aries ecosystem of connected technologies, the Papermill Alarm integration is seamless, enabling a straightforward set up for journals without the need for complex system configurations or training for editorial staff.

For more on the Papermill Alarm integration with Editorial Manager, check out our fact sheet or contact Clear Skies to get started: info@clear-skies.co.uk