WASHINGTON — China has emerged as a focal point for research misconduct, with nearly 60% of retracted scientific papers in the past decade originating from the country, according to scientific journal Nature.
Between 2014 and 2024, over 20,000 scientific papers from China were retracted, with a significant portion submitted by local hospitals, Nature said in a recent report, adding the retraction rate of about 0.3% is triple the global average.
Using data from three research-integrity firms in the U.S. and the U.K., Nature identified Jining First People’s Hospital in China’s Shandong province as the institution with the highest number of retracted papers.
From 2014 to 2024, more than 5% of the hospital’s total published research — over 100 papers — was retracted, a rate 50 times higher than the global average.
Jining First People’s Hospital had previously acknowledged misconduct, issuing 10 statements between 2021 and 2022 regarding 107 retracted papers, Nature said.
Among the top 10 institutions with the most retracted papers, six others were also from China: Cangzhou Central Hospital, Huaihe Hospital of Henan University, Weifang People’s Hospital, Linyi People’s Hospital, the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, and Qiqihar Medical University, the report said. The remaining three were universities in India, Pakistan, and Ethiopia, according to the report.
Rising research fraud
The surge in fraud cases is partly due to an increase in data sleuths like himself, said “Tiger,” a scientific integrity investigator.
“Retractions don’t always mean misconduct,” Tiger told Voice of America (VOA). “Scientific research has different stages. At each stage, new discoveries may correct previous mistakes. Some researchers leave past errors uncorrected, simply stating that new data does not support earlier findings. Others take a more rigorous approach, acknowledging their initial idea was wrong and retracting their papers. So, a retraction does not necessarily mean fraud.”
He also noted that not all listed authors in a retracted paper commit misconduct.
“There’s also the possibility that some researchers get caught up in it unknowingly. If a retracted paper has 10 authors, it doesn’t mean all of them were involved in the fraud. Scientific research is a team effort — those 10 authors might belong to three different teams or be responsible for five separate tasks. In many cases, only one person may have committed the fraud,” he said.
“Still, the majority of recent retractions involve either outright fraud or purchased papers,” he added.
Regional hospitals as fraud hotspots
Many doctors are under pressure to publish to get jobs or earn promotions, Tiger said.
“When it comes to hospitals in China, which ones are most likely to have fake research papers? Regional hospitals. Take the ones caught this time — Weifang, Linyi, Cangzhou. How do these local hospital doctors have time to write research papers, let alone publish in English? It’s impossible,” he explained. “Many of these hospitals don’t even have research facilities, yet they’re publishing papers on cell biology. That’s simply impossible and obviously fake.”
Science integrity sleuths on the move
Initially, science integrity sleuths — scientists who identify potential instances of misconduct — operated independently, but over time, they formed loose networks to share findings, Tiger said.
“A significant number of retracted papers, at least 60 to 70 percent of global retractions, have been uncovered by our members,” he said.
Elisabeth Bik, a microbiologist and scientific integrity consultant based in Los Angeles, has worked as a vigilante for 12 years.
“I’ve personally written to at least 546 journals to report fraud,” she told VOA. “I’m still far behind. I’ve identified at least 9,000 problematic papers, but I simply don’t have enough time to report them all.”
Tiger explained how they work.
“When we uncover fraud, we report it to the journals and make it public. At our busiest, we’ve exposed dozens of papers in a single day. Ideally, once a journal receives a report, they investigate. If they find issues, they ask the authors for an explanation. If the authors can’t provide solid evidence, the paper gets retracted. But in our experience, most reports went ignored,” Tiger said. “Retractions are still a minority — it can take months or even years for a fraudulent paper to be pulled.”
Although the fraud cases exposed by Nature are mostly in the biomedical field, Tiger said this may be because medical research relies heavily on images, making fraud easier to detect.
Fraud is widespread in other fields as well, particularly in materials science and mathematics.
“Nanomaterials research is rife with fraud, as is mathematical research,” he said. “The latter is harder to detect because very few people specialize in exposing mathematical fraud.”
He also pointed out that fraudulent papers in mathematics and other disciplines are frequently produced in countries like Iran and Iraq.
“They need published papers for promotions, just like we do, but the scale of their fraud goes beyond that — it’s an actual business of selling papers," Tiger said. “Countries like Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Egypt, Russia, and Poland have clusters of academic fraud, in mathematics, biomedical and even herbal medicine studies.”
Weak oversight
Bik compared academic journals to car dealerships.
“When you buy a car, you expect quality control. If the wheels fall off or the airbags malfunction, the manufacturer should take responsibility. The same should apply to scientific journals. I report issues, and they should address them,” she said. “But many journals lack proper oversight and fail to act even when fraud is reported. Some journals have improved — at least now, when I send a complaint, they might acknowledge it out of courtesy by saying, ‘Received.’ That’s still better than being completely ignored, as was the case before.”
She believes that the business model of academic journals has indirectly fueled the rise of fraudulent research.
“Journals used to charge readers, but now many have adopted a model of charging authors and giving free access to readers,” she said. “Authors commit fraud to benefit themselves, and journals make money from it. As for the readers, they may get free access, but what they’re reading is garbage.”
“It’s like a drug trade — one side gets money, and the other gets what they want. The difference is that publishing fraudulent papers isn’t illegal,” she said. “No one is going to sue a journal just because it published a fraudulent paper — there’s no clear illegal act in the process."
Tiger agrees, noting that second-tier journals are often the worst offenders.
“The quality of this kind of journal is not that high, and money has taken over in recent years. Publishing papers is no longer about scientific facts or breakthroughs, it’s about making money. So they don’t or barely review those papers... They don’t care about their reputation,” he said.
Consequences of research fraud
Research fraud could result in the development of fake drugs, potentially endangering patients.
Both Tiger and Bik cited the case of Cassava Sciences, a Texas-based biotech firm accused of manipulating data in Alzheimer’s drug trials in 2024.
In July 2021, Cassava’s stock surged from $6.84 to $146.16 per share, fueled by promising Phase 2 clinical trial results for its Alzheimer’s drug, “simufilam.” The company’s market value reached $5 billion, a twentyfold increase in just six months.
However, in August 2021, attorneys filed a petition with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on behalf of their clients, alleging that simufilam’s research data was fabricated and that images in scientific journal articles had been manipulated. The petition called for the suspension of the drug’s Phase 3 clinical trials.
In 2023, an internal investigation found that the drug’s co-developer Hoau-Yan Wang, a professor at City University of New York School of Medicine, had committed “significant research misconduct.”
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) later charged Wang with data manipulation, accusing him of creating “the appearance that the drug had caused dramatic improvements in biomarkers associated with Alzheimer’s disease.”
In September 2024, the company settled with the SEC for $40 million over negligence-based disclosure charges. The SEC also revealed that two former Cassava executives played key roles in misleading investors, each paying fines of $175,000 and $85,000, respectively. Wang was fined $50,000.
Bik and Tiger agree that while academic fraud may not have many immediate victims, it carries significant long-term risks, particularly in terms of unseen damage.
“It’s not just about fraud but also its impacts. Biomedical research and biopharmaceuticals rely heavily on fundamental studies — starting with cells, then animals, from small to large, and finally to humans. Research misconduct wastes money, dashes hopes, and squanders scientific effort,” he said.
Bik said the firms cited in Nature’s report are developing new software to help journals detect fraudulent research more effectively.
“It’s late, and it’s slow, but at least it’s happening. It’s better than nothing,” she said.
To read the original story in Chinese, click here.
