Phase 1 (2023 to 2025)
Five working groups developed guidance, publications and training resources in the action areas identified in the Consensus Statement.
The information below describes the activities of the Phase 1 working groups. All the output is available for use by the community and can be found on the Open Science Framework (OSF) platform.
Education and awareness
Chair: Jason Hu, Taylor & Francis
WORKING GROUP 1
Increase awareness and prevention of paper mill fraud by developing and communicating resources. Starting with a training toolkit that draws on existing guidance and makes it specific to paper mills.
The content that training material will be based on. Some concepts are repeated, tailored to different audiences.
Improve post-publication corrections
Chair: Dr Elizabeth Moylan, Wiley
WORKING GROUP 2
Investigate and agree ways to improve communication with those who report misconduct to journals, and agree ways in which to speed up the correction of the literature when misconduct is discovered.
Research on paper mills
Chair: Professor Jennifer Byrne, University of Sydney
WORKING GROUP 3
Fill the knowledge gap about paper mills. Encourage research to be carried out which will further reveal the extent of the problem of paper mills, how their practices are maturing, and possible actions to disrupt their impact. The first step is a bibliography of existing literature.
Develop trust markers
Chair: Dr Blaine Butler, Center for Open Science
WORKING GROUP 4
The working group has determined that the objective of drafting definitions of trust markers in the context of paper mills would be most beneficial to the publishing community (this includes authors, reviewers, and editors) to enable cross-sector communications and strategy development.
This includes defining trust markers as they relate to trust in people, organisations, processes and products. When the definitions have been agreed upon, the group will work to coordinate external initiatives and other tools for either identifying paper mills or signalling trust to the submission, editorial, and peer review process.
Facilitate dialogue between stakeholders
Chair: Dr Nandita Quaderi, Clarivate
WORKING GROUP 5
Enhance awareness and communication among stakeholders through a common vocabulary and by fostering a shared understanding of the environments that allow paper mills to thrive.
We recognise that all modes of scholarly communication and publishing models are affected.
Steering group (Phase 1)
- Deborah Kahn (Co-chair)
- Dr Sabina Alam, Taylor & Francis (Co-chair)
- Dr Stefania Mondello, University of Messina (Vice Chair)
- Jason Hu, Taylor & Francis (Working group 1)
- Dr Elizabeth Moylan, Wiley (Working group 2)
- Professor Jennifer Byrne, University of Sydney (Working group 3)
- Blaine Butler, Center for Open Science (Working group 4)
- Dr Nandita Quaderi, Clarivate (Working group 5)
- Natalie Ridgeway, COPE
- Caroline Sutton, STM
- Dr Joris van Rossum, STM
- Ruth King (Project Manager)
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