Scholarly journal retracts 60 articles, smashes ‘peer review ring’ by Fred Barbash.
From the post:
Every now and then a scholarly journal retracts an article because of errors or outright fraud. In academic circles, and sometimes beyond, each retraction is a big deal.
Now comes word of a journal retracting 60 articles at once.
The reason for the mass retraction is mind-blowing: A “peer review and citation ring” was apparently rigging the review process to get articles published.
You’ve heard of prostitution rings, gambling rings and extortion rings. Now there’s a “peer review ring.”
…
Favorable reviews were entered using fake identities as part of an open peer review process. The favorable reviews resulted in publication of those articles.
This was a peer review ring that depended upon false identities.
If peer review were more transparent, publications could explore relationships between peer reviewers and who reviewed their papers, grants, proposals, or their prior reviews of authors, projects, for interesting patterns.
I first saw this in a tweet by Steven Strogatz.