STM NEWSROOM

Research communications today face growing, coordinated threats to their integrity—from paper mills and manipulated peer review to systemic pressures that can compromise trust. In response, STM’s Research Integrity Committee has commissioned Research Consulting to map how publishing organisations across the sector are working to safeguard the scholarly record. In recent years, publishers have retracted thousands…

A timely interview with our own Hylke Koers in Retraction Watch highlights STM’s work on strengthening research integrity in scholarly publishing. With fraud and paper mills exploiting gaps in editorial systems, STM has developed a Researcher Identity Verification Framework—a flexible, inclusive approach to help journals and institutions verify researcher identities more reliably. Originally released in…

A new Nature Magazine survey of 5,000+ researchers shows there’s no clear consensus on how and when generative AI should be used in writing and reviewing scholarly papers — or how that use should be disclosed. To help bring clarity, STM has released a draft report: Classifying AI Use in Manuscript Preparation — that offers…

STM is proud to welcome the integration of a proprietary AI tool donated by Springer Nature into the STM Integrity Hub. Originally developed to identify AI-generated nonsense text in research manuscripts, this tool has been successfully used across Springer Nature’s journals and books. Its donation marks a significant step forward in collective efforts to uphold…

STM has released a new draft report, Recommendations for a Classification of AI Use in Academic Manuscript Preparation, developed by the STM Association’s Task & Finish Group on AI Labelling Terminology. This draft is now open for community consultation.  While publishers have long offered guidance on disclosing human assistance—such as language editing—recent advances in generative…

A new framework aimed at strengthening research integrity in scholarly publishing is being released today for community consultation. The Researcher Identity Verification Framework proposes proportionate and inclusive measures to verify researcher identities, helping to combat fraud, reduce paper mill activity, and protect the integrity of the academic record. For centuries, academic publishing has operated on…

Research paper mills — covert organizations that produce fraudulent manuscripts for profit — pose a significant threat to science and scholarship. These unethical entities scale their operations using AI, sell authorship positions, and manipulate peer review, eroding trust in research and slowing progress in critical areas such as innovation, healthcare, and policy.  United2Act — a…

Caroline Sutton’s annual visit to Japan in late October was, as always, a productive journey marked by a full agenda of strategic meetings, collaborations and community engagement.  At-a-glance: a packed itinerary  Caroline’s itinerary included high-level external meetings with key government bodies like the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology…

Amidst the ongoing issues of research integrity and paper mills, image integrity is a growing concern. The rise of generative AI poses significant additional risks, as it allows for the generation of images and other types of data that are very hard — if not impossible — to detect with current technologies. For this reason,…

As the digital landscape evolves, the foundational trust that has long supported academic publishing faces new vulnerabilities. Rising cases of identity fraud and integrity breaches are challenging the scholarly community to protect research integrity without imposing unnecessary burdens on genuine contributors. In response, STM Solutions released Trusted Identity in Academic Publishing: The Central Role of…