Five ways in which Elsevier is safeguarding the research landscape

We examine the context and explore some of the tools Elsevier has developed to counter the increasing threat of unethical behavior

The increase in the volume of global scientific output has meant an increase in unethical practices that are both complex and systematic. While there is excitement around the potential of generative AI tools to advance science, such technology also increases the potential risk of researchers infringing on ethical standards, especially with the production of false, inaccurate, or misleading content at scale. Our mission at Elsevier is to help researchers and healthcare professionals advance science and improve health outcomes for the benefit of society. We do this by curating and disseminating quality knowledge, facilitating insights and critical decision-making. Everything we do is underpinned by the quality of the scientific and medical information we publish.

Our goal is to prevent any cases that could potentially compromise the integrity of the scientific record and threaten trust in research. As the volume of fraudulent materials is increasing at scale, boosted by systematic manipulation, such as “paper mills” that produce fraudulent content for commercial gain, and AI-generated content, we are increasing our investment in human oversight, expertise and technology to help detect, correct and remove fraudulent content, and work closely with the community to advance protections for research integrity. A lot of this work is confidential to protect editorial and author privacy but it is all crucial to ensure that trust in science is not damaged. Let’s take a look at some of the ways we work to safeguard the research landscape…

We develop cutting-edge tools

In recent years, fraudulent activity has increased across all industries, often enabled by technology. Within Elsevier and our wider RELX group, we have a great amount of experience preventing, detecting, and handling fraud. Through our experience with risk management solutions, we are bringing our existing capabilities to address the complex process of fraud detection and prevention in the scientific publishing context.

We aim to prevent fraudulent articles from being published, and we invest heavily in tools and human expertise in this constant endeavor. Alongside a dedicated team of in-house experts focused on research integrity and publishing ethics, we use sophisticated technology at all stages of the submission, editorial, and peer review processes to detect plagiarism, fraudulent content, and other integrity and ethics concerns – whether that is screening newly submitted articles or re-examining those published in the past.

Our technology allows us to do other things, too. For example, our tools help our editorial teams to assess millions of potential peer reviewers based on their expertise and suitability. These recommendations help minimize conflicts of interest and promote an unbiased and inclusive peer review process.

We invest in diverse and amazing people

Tools and systems are vital, of course, but the human touch is equally important. Final decisions are therefore always made by our human experts. Our Research Integrity & Publishing Ethics team was established in 2013 and includes a growing group of dedicated trust and transparency technologists, engineers, data scientists, ethics experts, ethics analysts, and legal teams who work tirelessly to prevent and identify ethical breaches, investigate potential research integrity cases, and help educate the publishing community about the impact of research ethics issues.

We share knowledge and best practices with the community

Research integrity underpins trust in the scientific community, contributes to knowledge advancement, and has implications for societal impact. We recognize that this is a shared objective across the entire research community and publishing industry. In terms of our own operations, we equip our 34,000+ expert editors and 1.5 million reviewers with education, tools, and systems to uphold research integrity. These resources include our regularly reviewed publishing ethics policies, dedicated ethics training for our editors, and a series of ethics resources on our free Researcher Academy platform opens in new tab/window. In addition to our educational work, we also take an active role in industry working groups and we played a significant role in the establishment of the STM Integrity Hub opens in new tab/window.

We operate to rigorous standards and correct the record when needed

Given the ever-changing landscape and the ongoing evolution of ethical threats, staying flexible and adapting to new issues is key. We operate a robust system of standards and processes, but we’re also committed to ensuring they are regularly updated and able to respond to current and future needs.

Although integrity issues only affect a very small proportion of published articles, especially when viewed in the context of the volume of verified, trusted articles published each year, we take each case extremely seriously and conduct a thorough investigation for each paper. Corrections to the scientific record, including retractions, are a rare, but important part of the editorial and peer review process and demonstrate our unwavering commitment to research integrity and publishing ethics.

We join the dots

To ensure compliance with our rigorous standards, we monitor publishing ethics at the paper, author, and network level. Whenever we discover a potential issue, we start a thorough investigation and based on the outcome take appropriate, swift action.

The technologies we employ mean we can conduct investigations at (significant) scale – our investigation tools have proactively assessed millions of papers, providing robust data that drive ongoing enhancements to our technology and processes. In this way, what might in the past have been a single article investigation now becomes a highly complex network-level analysis, potentially revealing more instances of ethical malpractice and other bad actors.

Robust identification of signals, at scale, enables us to shift our focus from detection to prevention at all stages of the publication cycle. The adaptive nature of the technologies we are developing will allow us to continue to “join the dots” as new trends emerge.

We plan to bring you more articles in the near future where we’ll unpack some of the tools we’re using to safeguard the research landscape. In the meantime, however, we hope the above has given you an insight into some of the research integrity work that goes on at Elsevier.