Better Living through Coordination Chemistry: A descriptive study of a prolific papermill that combines crystallography and medicine

Abstract

Abstract The organised, production-line creation of fake papers by “papermills”, injecting fabricated results into the scientific literature, has become a problem in many domains of biomedical research. Here we propose that at least 800 publications in crystallography and exotic-chemistry journals, from the period 2015-2022, are also the work of a prolific papermill specialising in imaginary Metal-Organic Frameworks and their wholly invented therapeutic applications. The mill is characterised by recycled images, and by oddities of wording in Methods sections, but its most obvious hallmarks appear in Reference sections, with citations to irrelevant research from remote fields of science. One purpose of these irregularities is presumably to manipulate the researchers’ performance indicators. We argue that a paper’s References deserve closer scrutiny from journal editors and publishers than they routinely receive.