Draft:Sage Publishing Fraud

• Comment: Personally I'd prefer to see this as a redirect with the content merged into Sage Publishing. MarcGarver (talk) 19:04, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

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The Sage Publishing fraud was an academic fraud that impacted journals published by Sage Publishing, particularly the Journal of Vibration and Control (JVC). The fraud was uncovered in July 2014 following a 14-month internal investigation by Sage, which revealed a fake peer-review scam involving hundreds of fraudulent and assumed identities.

The scam was orchestrated mainly by Peter Chen, a physicist at the National Pingtung University of Education (NPUE) in Taiwan. Chen used fake identities and Gmail accounts to pose as university-based scientists, manipulating the peer-review process to ensure favorable reviews for submissions. The scam involved creating a network of papers where the same small group of authors reviewed each other's work and appeared together as co-authors. This practice, known as a "peer review ring," allowed Chen to publish numerous articles with minimal scrutiny. The lack of vetting and the lax editorial policy at JVC, which allowed authors to nominate preferred reviewers without adequate verification, facilitated the scam.

The discovery of the scam led to the retraction of 60 research articles published over four years in JVC. The retractions were a result of Sage's investigation, which found that the authors and reviewers involved in the scam did not respond to verification requests. The Education Minister of Taiwan, Chiang Wei-ling, was also implicated as his name appeared on several of the retracted papers, leading to his resignation. Sage subsequently claimed to have taken steps to ensure compliance with the highest standards of peer review and publication, including conducting additional reviews of their guidance to editors and authors.