paper mills

Paper mills are organizations that produce fake or low-quality academic papers, often for profit. They create and sell these manuscripts to researchers or students seeking to publish quickly, sometimes adding fabricated or plagiarized content. Their goal is to generate publications that can be submitted to journals or presented as legitimate work, undermining the integrity of scholarship. Paper mills contribute to the spread of misinformation, inflate publication records dishonestly, and can compromise the credibility of research fields. Efforts to combat paper mills focus on detection, stricter publishing standards, and promoting ethical research practices.