One in five chemists have deliberately added errors into their papers during peer review

More than 20% of chemistry researchers have deliberately added information they believe to be incorrect into their manuscripts during the peer review process, in order to get their papers published.That’s one conclusion of a study surveying 982 chemistry researchers who were the corresponding authors of at least two papers published in journals of the Royal Society of Chemistry or the American Chemical Society between 2020 and 2023. (ACS publishes C&EN.)The study, published by Accountability in Research, aimed to document how chemists react when they spot errors in other researchers’ studies or their own manuscripts and what action, if any, they take when they do so.When asked if they felt they were forced to modify their manuscript with text they thought to be incorrect, 22% of survey respondents said yes. Study author Frédérique Bordignon, a bibliometrician and research integrity officer at École des ponts ParisTech, says one reason for making such a concession is to wrap up the review process and get a paper published. “It’s a bit concerning,” she says.Most survey respondents—88%—said they had discovered errors in papers when reading them. Out of those who spotted errors, nearly four in five reported taking further action. While most researchers agree that formally correcting the scholarly record is the best practice, that’s often not what they do in practice, Bordignon says. “They prefer off-the-record activities like discussion with other peers,” she says.Among those who took action, 42% mentioned the issue in private conversations to colleagues such as during coffee breaks at conferences; around