Open access publisher BioMed Central is retracting 43 papers, following their investigation into 50 papers that raised suspicions of fake peer review, possibly involving third-party companies selling the service.
In November 2014 there were reports about fake peer reviews for Nature. At that point there had been about 110 retractions across several journals. The addition of 16 retractions by Elsevier for the same reason, and now 43 from BMC, brings retractions resulting from the phenomenon up to about 170.
BMC has also contacted institutions regarding 60 additional papers that were rejected for publication, but seem to be part of the same kind of scam.
Some of the manipulations appear to have been conducted by third-party agencies offering language-editing and submission assistance to authors. It is unclear whether the authors of the manuscripts involved were aware that the agencies were proposing fabricated reviewers on their behalf or whether authors proposed fabricated names directly themselves.
In an attempt to limit submission of fake peer reviewers, BMC has turned off the automated system that let authors provide contact information for potential reviewers. Authors will still be able to suggest reviewers in their cover letters.
BMC has also sent an email to editors of BMC journals that addresses the retractions and how peer review suggestions will function without an automated option.
Authors will still be able to suggest potential peer reviewers in their cover letter on submission. The submission system is being updated to inform authors on how they can suggest reviewers. The Information for Authors pages is also being updated to tell authors that they may use their cover letter to suggest reviewers, but that they should provide institutional email addresses where possible, or information which will help the editor to verify the identity of the reviewer. Editors who find author suggestions useful and are happy to implement some simple checks on the validity of the suggestions are welcome to ask authors to suggest potential peer reviewers in their cover letter.
