Hundreds of gibberish papers still lurk in the scientific literature

NEWS
27 May 2021
Clarification 28 May 2021

The nonsensical computer-generated articles, spotted years after the problem was first seen, could lead to a wave of retractions.

Nonsensical research papers generated by a computer program are still popping up in the scientific literature many years after the problem was first seen, a study has revealed¹. Some publishers have told Nature they will take down the papers, which could result in more than 200 retractions.

Nature 594, 160-161 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01436-7

Updates & Corrections

Clarification 28 May 2021: This article has been updated to clarify a statement from IOP Publishing.

References

Cabanac, G. & Labbé, C. J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24495 (2021).
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