Although it might be biomedical disciplines that first spring to mind when we think about scientific deception within scholarly publishing, no discipline is immune to fraudulent conduct and all journals need to be vigilant. Editors and publishers have taken a stand against scientific misconduct and fraud, but the 24-hour attention required to prevent untruths and downright lies getting into the publication record does take a toll.

Almost five million papers were published in total, worldwide in 2022 according to data from Dimensions. That is not the number of papers submitted, which will be significantly higher. According to Retraction Watch, almost 5,000 papers were retracted in 2022 and this number will increase unless we have the technology, the beady eye of an experienced editor and the good will of our peer reviewers.

Editors are the first line of defence against fraudsters, and more than a watchful eye is required. Their vigilance requires a knowledge of the cues to wrongdoing. Keeping ahead of those trends is time-consuming, leaving editors exhausted and stressed in case they let something through that taints the scientific record. This was investigated in a scientific article "The anxiety of the lone editor: fraud, paper mills and the protection of the scientific record" (Anna Parkinson та Til Wykes).

Source: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09638237.2023.2232217

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