New forms of fraud in science: Deceptive practices such as article mills, fraudulent peer review, and automatic content generation

Introduction: The study analyzes emerging trends in scientific fraud, focusing on article mills, fraudulent peer reviews, and randomly generated content, practices that have transformed the dynamics of scientific retractions. Methods: With a descriptive and transversal approach, 37,480 retracted documents were analyzed between 2015 and 2024, using data from the Retraction Watch database. Information was collected on authors, countries of affiliation, dates, areas of knowledge, and reasons for retraction. Results: The results reveal a notable change in the causes of retraction. Between 2015 and 2019, plagiarism (21.6%) and duplication (14%) led, while between 2020 and 2024 they dropped to 6.8% and 4%, respectively. In this last period, article mills (30.1%), fake peer reviews (19.9%), and randomly generated content (23.3%) increased. These practices mainly affected Business, Technology and Social Sciences, with China and India leading in these fraudulent activities. Conclusions: The study concludes that these new forms of scientific fraud represent a critical challenge to the integrity of the publications system. It underscores the need to strengthen editorial policies, implement advanced screening tools, and promote ethics education to protect the credibility of global science.