STM publisher Springer has confirmed that 64 articles are being retracted from 10 Springer subscription journals, after editorial checks spotted fake email addresses, and subsequent internal investigations uncovered fabricated peer review reports. After a thorough investigation it was discovered that the peer review process on these 64 articles was compromised. This was reported to the Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE) immediately.
Attempts to manipulate peer review have affected journals across a number of publishers as detailed by COPE in their December 2014 statement. Springer has made COPE aware of the findings of its own internal investigations and has followed COPE's recommendations, as outlined in their statement, for dealing with this issue. Springer will continue to support COPE's efforts in this matter.
The peer-review process is one of the cornerstones of quality, integrity and reproducibility in research. Editorial processes across Springer are now being reviewed to guard against this kind of manipulation of the peer review process in future.
Springer's latest move reportedly brings the total number of papers withdrawn from publications to 230 over the last three years. Other major publishers have retracted articles from their journals over the last several months. These include Elsevier, Taylor & Francis, SAGE and Wiley.
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