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17 Apr 2026
Machine learning based screening of potential paper mill publications in cancer research: methodological and cross sectional study
Research paper mills are “contract-cheating organisations which provide undeclared services to support research manuscripts and publications.” Research paper mills fabricate and submit manuscripts for their customers. The first research paper mill activity was reported in the 2010s, and has since increased in volume and sophistication. More than 400 000 papers suspected to have originated from paper mills have been published in the past 20 years, with the paper mills earning tens of millions of dollars annually. This issue gained visibility when Wiley—after acquiring Hindawi—retracted nearly 11 000 suspected paper mill papers and shut down 19 journals over two years.