From early cases of falsified reviewer emails in 2012 to the mass retractions at BioMed Central, Springer, Hindawi, and Wiley, the timeline reveals how fake peer reviews and paper mill activities have escalated, with over 8,000 papers withdrawn in 2023 alone.
The below infographic traces the growing crisis of retractions caused by compromised peer review, highlighting how systemic vulnerabilities have been exploited over the past decade. It shows how the “publish or perish” culture, combined with weak editorial checks and overburdened reviewers, has led to waves of retractions across major publishers. It emphasizes that while peer review remains the “gatekeeper of science,” unchecked pressures and fraud have placed its credibility at risk; raising a critical question for Peer Review Week 2025: Can the system evolve fast enough to protect research integrity? Let us know in the comments!
