What we are doing to help researchers publish their papers in our journal

Abstract

In recent years, the Editors of many medical journals have had to rethink how they check submitted manuscripts. The reason for this is the increasing stream of likely fabricated manuscripts that have been submitted by errant authors directly or via socalled ‘paper mills’. Clever investigative work has revealed the massive extent of the paper-mill and data fabrication problem. Such investigations have led to hundreds of retractions across an array of journals. Editors of respectable scholarly journals (including us at The Journal of International Medical Research (JIMR)) have reviewed and strengthened their checking and peer review steps. However, no system of checks is yet foolproof and paper mills will no doubt continue to try and beat the system. Thus, we can expect organisations such as Retraction Watch to continue its conscientious reporting of historical and new paper-mill papers. While we have introduced many new checks in our peer review and decisionmaking processes, we have also enhanced the steps we take to ensure we can continue to assist researchers as much as possible. This Editorial explains the steps JIMR has taken to detect probable fabricated manuscripts and to aid the publication of genuine research.