Software that detects ‘tortured acronyms’ in research papers could help root out misconduct | Science | AAAS

"The group ... led by University of Toulouse computer scientist Guillaume Cabanac... previously developed a range of automatic misconduct detectors on the publicly available Problematic Paper Screener (PPS). The system automatically scans the scientific literature weekly and flags papers that have tortured phrases—nonsensical paraphrases such as “glucose bigotry” instead of “glucose intolerance”—cell lines that do not exist, and other giveaways that signal potentially grave problems.

Now, the group has added tortured acronyms to its list of red flags and is offering free software for publishers to screen for previously unidentified tortured acronyms in paper submissions..."