Beyond Retractions: Forensic Scientometrics Techniques to Identify Research Misconduct, Citation Leakage, and Funding Anomalies

TL;DR

This paper investigates a fabricated research network using forensic scientometric techniques to uncover research misconduct, citation leakage, and funding anomalies, highlighting the importance of advanced metrics in research integrity.

Contribution

It introduces forensic scientometric methods to detect research misconduct and anomalies in scholarly publishing, demonstrated through a case study of the Pharmakon Neuroscience Research Network.

Findings

Identification of fabricated research activities

Detection of citation leakage patterns

Uncovering funding anomalies associated with the network

Abstract

This paper presents a forensic scientometric case study of the Pharmakon Neuroscience Research Network, a fabricated research collective that operated primarily between 2019 and 2022 while embedding itself within legitimate scholarly publishing channels.