126: Run of the Mill

In which we talk of a huge problem currently plaguing chemistry (and science in general), the "paper mill," in which researchers pay to get their name attached to others' publications, or they write fraudulent publications and pay to get them in print. We hear of a Chinese firm discovered to be such a broker, possible reasons why chemists would fake research, and specific examples of chemical fraud. One insidious problem is faked crystallographic data on molecular structures, uploaded to repositories. Finally we learn of some ways to identify paper mills.

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