In the emails, sent between May and August and using the same boilerplate language, the Nanjing-based agency A-Techo said it would pay an "expedited processing fee" of $500 to $1,000 US "per accepted manuscript to support the review process".

But when A-Techo’s proposition landed in the inbox of Ilka Agricola, an editor of the Journal of the European Mathematical Society, she had no doubt about the underlying motive. "It was clear to me that the ‘fast-track fee’ was a euphemism for ‘bribe,’" she told, adding that fast-tracking is "unheard of" in mathematics. "The offer was to accept a low-quality paper for money, which would never have been accepted otherwise, in the hope that nobody would notice."

Bribery is nothing new in academic publishing. A joint investigation by Retraction Watch and Science Magazine last year found a paper mill in China had paid tens of thousands of dollars in kickbacks to international editors who accepted its manuscripts. And in December, 2024, Retraction Watch wrote about a journal editor in the United States who had received a bribery offer that also appeared to come from China.

Source https://retractionwatch.com/2025/09/08/article-broker-a-techo-china-journal-editors-publishing-deals/

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