4 February 2025
KnowledgeWorks Global, a provider of transformative content solutions, and Clear Skies, developer of advanced data analytics tools to support research integrity, have announced a collaboration to integrate the award-winning Papermill Alarm into KGL’s Smart Review platform.
With an estimated 1.5% of the research literature produced by papermills, such illegal, profit-driven organizations that produce and sell fraudulent manuscripts have become a serious threat to research integrity and the credibility of scholarly communications. Smart Review, which already includes comprehensive submission checks and automated tasks to speed up the peer review process, will now employ the world’s leading papermill detection service.
Papermill Alarm is comprised of a number of separate tools using a broad range of innovative methods and unique data. It uses AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), network analysis and more to find signals consistent with organized research fraud. Publishers using Smart Review will now receive automated alerts when the Papermill Alarm detects signs of research fraud in newly submitted papers, saving time in peer-review and preventing retractions.
Atul Goel, President of KGL said, “Smart Review is becoming the premier platform using intelligent automation to power the peer review process and rapidly publish journal content to the highest standards of quality, diligence, and impact. We are thrilled to integrate the first-of-its-kind Papermill Alarm into the research integrity checks we can quickly and reliably perform for manuscript submissions. KGL is truly committed to publishing innovation and safeguarding the integrity of content and reputations of our customers.”
Adam Day, Founder and CEO of Clear Skies added, “The Papermill Alarm API detects rare signals in the research literature, providing article-level alerts at the moment of submission and underpinning editorial workflows like Smart Review. KGL’s peer review customers can now undertake early misconduct investigations to both protect the literature and avoid costly retractions. We are excited to extend this capability with a leading industry partner with a broad and established publisher base.”