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Emerging plagiarism in peer-review evaluation reports: a tip of the iceberg?

Author

Listed:
  • Mikołaj Piniewski

    (Warsaw University of Life Sciences)

  • Ivan Jarić

    (Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, AgroParisTech, Ecologie Systématique Evolution
    Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Hydrobiology)

  • Demetris Koutsoyiannis

    (National Technical University of Athens)

  • Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz

    (Poznań University of Life Sciences)

Abstract

The phenomenon of plagiarism in peer-review evaluation reports remained surprisingly unrecognized, despite a notable rise of such cases in recent years. This study reports multiple cases of peer-review plagiarism recently detected in 50 different scientific articles published in 19 journals. Their in-depth analysis reveals that such reviews tend to be nonsensical, vague and unrelated to the actual manuscript. The analysis is followed by a discussion of the roots of such plagiarism, its consequences and measures that could counteract its further spreading. In addition, we demonstrate how increased availability and access to AI technologies through recent emergence of chatbots may be misused to write or conceal plagiarized peer-reviews. Plagiarizing reviews is a severe misconduct that requires urgent attention and action from all affected parties.

Suggested Citation

  • Mikołaj Piniewski & Ivan Jarić & Demetris Koutsoyiannis & Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz, 2024. "Emerging plagiarism in peer-review evaluation reports: a tip of the iceberg?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(4), pages 2489-2498, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:129:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1007_s11192-024-04960-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-024-04960-1
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Dietmar Wolfram & Peiling Wang & Adam Hembree & Hyoungjoo Park, 2020. "Open peer review: promoting transparency in open science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(2), pages 1033-1051, November.
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    3. Dietmar Wolfram & Peiling Wang & Fuad Abuzahra, 2021. "An exploration of referees’ comments published in open peer review journals: The characteristics of review language and the association between review scrutiny and citations [Peer Review for Journa," Research Evaluation, Oxford University Press, vol. 30(3), pages 314-322.
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