Rise of ‘paper mills’: 32,700 fake scientific papers published in real journals, study finds Before buying into the latest study splashed across the headlines, better check the source. In an increasingly troubling academic trend, companies dubbed “paper mills” are selling fake studies to researchers who need publications to keep their jobs or careers moving. These fake scientific papers are being published in real journals at an alarming rate, according to a study published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The number of fake papers doubled every 1.5 years between 2016 and 2020, and there are...