The paper mill crisis is a five-alarm fire for science: what can librarians do about it? | Insights

Abstract:  The paper mill crisis, which is polluting the scholarly literature with fake papers, has led to record-breaking article retractions and continues to erode trust in science. While publishers and other scholarly publishing stakeholders have mobilized to address this grave threat to research and publishing integrity, action from the library community has been lacking. This article explores the ongoing impact of the paper mill crisis and its causes. It also reviews the steps being taken across the sector to address it. This includes actions taken by publishers, integrity sleuths and organizations like Retraction Watch, NISO and STM. Based on the severity of the crisis and the current response, this article recommends actions libraries can take to help address the crisis and clean up the mess paper mills have made in the scholarly literature. At a time of declining trust and growing threats facing society, it is critical that all scholarly publishing stakeholders, including librarians, help hold the line on publishing integrity and restore trust in science.

From the body of the paper: 

The second misaligned incentive contributing to the paper mill crisis works on the publisher side. APC-based open access publishing models incentivize volume. More articles mean more APCs. More APCs mean more revenue. This mercenary fact goes a long way towards explaining the volume-based strategies of a growing number of publishers. The prioritization of short-term profits over publication integrity is also behind the recent addiction to special issues, which have served as a go-to strategy to boost publishing volume....

Considering the size of the paper mill crisis, the damage it is causing to scientific integrity and trust and the ongoing threat it represents to the open access transition, how are librarians, a key stakeholder in scholarly communication, mobilizing to help address the crisis?...

With open access agreements, it is worth noting that librarians also bear some responsibility for the current crisis. The recent growth in open access is largely a result of libraries and funders asking publishers for open access alternatives to the traditional subscription model. Librarians license and fund the very APC-based open access models that have created the volume-based incentive for publishers....

APC-based open access models and approaches incentivize publishers to pursue volume, chasing quantity at the expense of quality. To help promote publishing integrity, libraries can support and advocate for publisher adoption of publishing integrity aligned open access models like Subscribe to Open. Non-APC based models like Subscribe to Open remove the volume incentive because revenue is not immediately tied to article acceptance. The paper mill problem is an APC problem. Libraries should work with publishers to advance paper mill proof, publishing integrity aligned, non-APC open access...."