Planet Neuroscientists

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What matters most for children in their family relationships?

Navigating the vast number of opinions about what matters most for children’s healthy development can be a daunting and seemingly endless task. From politicians to journalists to self-styled ‘parenting experts’, everyone has an opinion on what children need in their family relationships and how parents should provide this. These opinions can range from the relatively mundane aspects of everyday parenting, for example, how parents can encourage children to brush their teeth, to larger socio-political and legal questions, such as who is allowed to use fertility treatment to create their families, who is recognised as a parent, and what this means for children.

Too rarely does evidence manage to break through the heat and noise of these debates, yet developmental psychologists have spent decades addressing the questions of how family relationships shape child development and what really matters for children. We draw on classic and cutting-edge research on family relationships to highlight three factors that psychologists have consistently found to shape children’s development across different relationships, transitions, and cultures, which can enable children to thrive within their families.

1. Relationship quality is more important than family structure

Empirical evidence has consistently shown that the quality of relationships between family members matters far more for children’s healthy development than who lives together and how they are related. Research into the aspects of parent-child relationships that predict outcomes for children has shown that responding in a sensitive (i.e., timely and appropriate) way to a child, consistent provision of support and boundaries, and open communication facilitate positive mental health and social development in children. Similarly, positive, co-operative relationships between parents and siblings also support healthy child development.

Furthermore, studies that have looked at different family structures, whether that be the number, gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity of parents in a family, the way in which families were created, or whether family members share a genetic connection, have provided robust support in this area. What a family looks like matters far less for how children develop within that family than how family members treat each other.

This is not to say that family relationships, whether between parents and children or between siblings, must always be calm and non-conflictual. The presence of appropriate levels of conflict within family relationships, when handled well (i.e., respectfully and flexibly), can actually be beneficial to children and adolescents in helping them learn and practice different communication skills.

2. Connection promotes autonomy

Until recently, it was not uncommon, particularly in Western countries, for parents to be told that the developmental task of childhood and adolescence was to achieve separation from parents. Research has consistently shown, however, that parents can best support children to develop autonomy in age-appropriate ways by maintaining a connection with them. This is the case whether we are looking at research on how parents can encourage their toddlers to explore a new environment, help their children manage the transition to starting school, or support their teens to navigate increasing independence and changing peer relationships. The presence of a consistent, supportive parent-child relationship facilitates rather than hampers the development of autonomy.

3. Supportive policies and communities matter

Finally, research from across different areas of developmental psychology shows us powerfully and consistently that families don’t exist in isolation and that the structures around them matter for children’s (and parents’) wellbeing. This is the case whether we are talking about parents’ access to social support (i.e., the presence or absence of family and friends), the provision or absence of statutory support, for example, in the case of families raising children with disabilities or special educational needs, or the legislative frameworks around families.

We know, for example, that policies around parental leave influence, and in some cases constrain, parents’ decisions about parenting and childcare during infancy, and that satisfaction with these arrangements is related to parents’ relationship quality and mental health, both of which affect children’s development. And discriminatory rhetoric and laws, for example, anti-LGBTQ+ legislation or legislation that negatively targets minoritized ethnic groups, can make children and families feel less safe by legitimising abuse towards the family and adding further burdens on family members to advocate for or defend their family. It should come as no surprise, then, that children and families do better with supportive communities and structures around them.

No two families or two relationships within a family are the same, but there are consistent factors within relationships that can support children’s healthy development. The extent to which families are able to provide these will differ depending on their knowledge, their previous experiences, the resources available to them, the challenges they face, where they live, and the extent to which the structures around them are supportive or obstructive of family life. Children and their families should be supported to thrive in all their diversity, and focusing on what the evidence tells us really matters for children is, surely, the best place to start.

Featured image by Juliane Liebermann via Unsplash.

OUPblog - Academic insights for the thinking world.

“After the public notification of integrity concerns about an article, it would be expected that other authors would no longer cite the article because it is unreliable,” write the authors of a new preprint. But that’s not what they found in a limited comparative study. Whether the study is generalizable has yet to be seen, says one other expert.

Four sleuths – the University of Aberdeen’s Hugo Studd and Alison Avenell and the University of Auckland’s Andrew Grey and Mark J. Bolland – charted citation data for 172 papers on clinical trials from Zatollah Asemi, a nutrition researcher at Kashan University of Medical Sciences in Iran, whose work has come under scrutiny.

Of these, 23 had been retracted, 38 had expressions of concern, 41 had some other type of editorial notice, and 70 had not been subject to any flag. The preprint authors sought to test how the type of editorial response affected citations, given “differences in their visibility or perceived seriousness.”

Bibliometric researchers sometimes refer to retracted or marked papers that continue to circulate as “zombie papers.” Data suggest the vast majority of retracted papers continue to be cited as if they had not been retracted. Even when citations of retracted papers do dwindle, it’s been unclear whether that’s due to the paper’s age rather than its editorial status.

The authors of the new preprint have been involved with the Asemi case — and this specific dataset — for years. In 2019, they flagged the 172 papers to the journals that published them with allegations of unethical conduct, results that didn’t match the study design, data irregularities and myriad other integrity issues. For those papers on which editors have taken action, notices have been published an average of five years after publication. As Grey told us back in 2021 in regards to journals’ response times on Asemi’s papers: “Yep, pretty slow.”

The randomized controlled trials reported in the articles examined had collectively been cited more than 10,000 times in more than 6,000 articles. For both the flagged articles and those with no notices, “citations increased steadily, peaking 45-65 months post-publication,” with similar declines thereafter. The researchers found “little evidence that publication of an editorial response, whether it was retraction, publication of an EoC or issuing of an editorial notice, had any meaningful effect on the rate of citation.”

In a jointly signed response to our questions, the four authors told us they were unsurprised by their results, given the years of delay between publication time and notice. They were also unsurprised that the black-marked papers continued to be referenced in new work. “By then, these [trial] publications were probably imbedded within the literature and databases, resulting in continued citation regardless of editorial action,” they wrote.

The authors told us they believe the results of the paper are generalizable, even though it covered one author’s body of work. That’s because the trials spanned 65 journals and were published by 25 publishers.

Jodi Schneider, director of the Information Quality Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is not as convinced it’s generalizable. But, she added, “Their continued analysis of this case study is quite valuable for the research community — with sobering results.”

Like Retraction Watch? You can make a tax-deductible contribution to support our work, follow us on X or Bluesky, like us on Facebook, follow us on LinkedIn, add us to your RSS reader, or subscribe to our daily digest. If you find a retraction that’s not in our database, you can let us know here. For comments or feedback, email us at team@retractionwatch.com.

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in Retraction watch on 2026-04-27 18:34:23 UTC.

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Iconic Sombrero Galaxy captured in incredible detail, revealing its enormous glowing halo

This galaxy, also known as Messier 104, gets its nickname from its central bulge and outer dust trail, which give it a sombrerolike appearance from our vantage point

in Scientific American on 2026-04-27 17:30:00 UTC.

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People trust vaccine scientists as much as other researchers, poll shows

Roughly seven in 10 people still trust vaccine researchers, a new poll finds. The number is in line with trust for other scientists

in Scientific American on 2026-04-27 16:30:00 UTC.

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Blood filtering could help treat preeclampsia, pilot study suggests

Preeclampsia can be deadly in pregnancy, and aside from delivering the baby, the condition has no targeted treatment. A new study suggests blood filtering with antibodies could help

in Scientific American on 2026-04-27 16:12:00 UTC.

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This dangerous pregnancy complication is common. A new treatment might help

Preeclampsia complicates 3 to 8 percent of pregnancies. In a recent trial, a blood filter lowered blood pressure and helped prolong some pregnancies.

in Science News: Health & Medicine on 2026-04-27 15:00:00 UTC.

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Episode 332 - Vanesaa Nieto-Estévez and Parul Varma, PhDs

On April 23, 2026 I met with Drs. Vanesa Nieto Estévez and Parul Varma to talk about brain organoids made from cells derived from patients with genetic childhood epilepsy. Vanesa and Parul explained how these patient-derived tissue cultures are used to isolate the defects in brain development that underly the brain disorder, and to suggest and test potential treatments.

Guests:

Vanesa Nieto Estévez and Parul Varma, Assistant Professors of Research, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San Antonio

Host:

Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UT San Antonio

Thanks to James Tepper for original music

in Neuroscientists talk shop on 2026-04-27 15:00:00 UTC.

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Zepbound’s and Ozempic’s greatest benefit may be their anti-inflammatory power

A growing body of research suggests that GLP-1 drugs do more than control appetite and blood sugar. They could also fight inflammation

in Scientific American on 2026-04-27 11:00:00 UTC.

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NASA Curiosity discovery, suicide hotline hope, the AI voice clone upper hand

What NASA’s Curiosity Rover found on Mars, how youth suicides dropped after the launch of the 988 crisis line, and what people think of AI voice clones

in Scientific American on 2026-04-27 10:00:00 UTC.

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Can AI do neuroscience without understanding?

Prediction without understanding sustained astronomy through a thousand years of epicycles. Artificial intelligence is now offering neuroscience the same deal.

in The Transmitter on 2026-04-27 04:00:30 UTC.

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Entire NSF science advisory board fired by Trump administration

Members of the National Science Board, which the U.S. Congress founded in 1950, were given no explanation for their termination

in Scientific American on 2026-04-26 22:40:00 UTC.

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‘Staggering’ number of people believe unproven claims about vaccines, raw milk, and more

Survey results suggest a rise in questioning of scientific evidence

in Scientific American on 2026-04-26 12:00:00 UTC.

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Advancing Neuroimaging: Lauren Gascoyne on the Promise of OPM-MEG

In this interview, Dr Lauren Gascoyne discusses OPM-MEG, a cutting-edge, wearable neuroimaging technique that measures the brain’s magnetic fields in more naturalistic settings. She shares how it compares to traditional methods, her role in developing the technology, and reflects on her career path and the importance of careful science communication.

in Women in Neuroscience UK on 2026-04-25 23:00:00 UTC.

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‘Bat feast’ animal videos at African cave offer clues to how deadly viruses spread

Researchers filmed 10 species eating or scavenging bats at a known Marburg-virus hotspot—and caught hundreds of humans visiting

in Scientific American on 2026-04-25 12:00:00 UTC.

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Can electric air taxis carry passengers? Vertical Aerospace’s VX4 just cleared a key test

A British start-up recently pulled off a key maneuver for electric vertical flight—but certification, infrastructure and demand will decide whether air taxis fill our skies

in Scientific American on 2026-04-25 10:30:00 UTC.

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Mollusk shells could pave the way to greener materials

Nacre-inspired ceramics could be the basis for the next generation of energy-efficient technology

in Scientific American on 2026-04-25 10:00:00 UTC.

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Weekend reads: What paper mills charge for author slots; UK Biobank data breached; what researchers think of the future of science

If your week flew by — we know ours did — catch up here with what you might have missed.

The week at Retraction Watch featured:

10 years ago, Elisabeth Bik published a preprint heard around the world
Major pharmacology journals flag another 15 papers by scientist facing criminal probe
‘I asked him to stop’: Father adds daughter’s name to over 100 preprints without her permission
A response to: Should universities investigate questionable papers students and faculty wrote elsewhere? Read the original guest post
Another retraction and two investigations for chemist
Journal goes dark after impersonating Eric Topol and others
Buying a first author slot can cost you anywhere from $56 to $5,600

In case you missed the news, the Hijacked Journal Checker now has more than 400 entries. The Retraction Watch Database has over 64,000 retractions. Our list of COVID-19 retractions is up to 650, and our mass resignations list has more than 50 entries. We keep tabs on all this and more. If you value this work, please consider showing your support with a tax-deductible donation. Every dollar counts.

I Support Retraction Watch

Here’s what was happening elsewhere (some of these items may be paywalled, metered access, or require free registration to read):

Private health records of 500,000 volunteers in the UK Biobank project “offered for sale on Chinese website.”
“Institutional support for ethical AI adoption in higher education amid the rising trend of manuscript retractions.”
“The British lawyer using US courts to fight research fraud.” Read Eugenie Reich’s recent guest post for Retraction Watch.
“Investigation Into Rogue Toxicology Lab Wins 2026 McElheny Award.”
“Digital identity and the systemic vulnerability of peer review: A call for resilience, awareness, and shared governance.”
“Moving from Identifier to Identity for Researchers.” Our Q&A from last year on STM’s Research Identity Verification Framework.
“Showcasing research achievements and safeguarding research integrity: How do Chinese universities fare?”
“Faced with rising processing charges for international journal articles, China is advancing reforms in its scientific research evaluation system.”
“Paying reviewers can fix system’s ‘structural problem’, editor argues.”
“‘Sophisticated fraud’: Impersonators target academics and private universities with lure of government grants.”
“Checking for Statistical Errors in Primary Studies: A Way to Improve Meta-Analytic Evidence?”
“AI Is a Better Researcher Than You: That claim got a political scientist denounced. Is it true?”
“Scientist Irritated by Lab Colleague Accused in Poisoning Attempt.”
“CDC won’t publish report showing covid shots cut likelihood of hospital visits.”
“Predatory publishing in nutrition and dietetics: Risks, impacts, and collaborative solutions.”
“Evaluating the credibility of major medical journals today.”
“AI use suspected in Lund University doctoral thesis.”
“How Moderation Makes Science: Precautionary Valuation and Boundary-Making in the Early Circulation of Research.”
Harvard says researcher who published nearly 100 articles in 2 1/2 years has no affiliation with the university; news outlet alleges the “astonishingly prolific” author used AI to generate papers.
“How hidden contributions power modern research.”
Researchers on AI disclosure to address anthropology’s “distinctive epistemic and ethical commitments.”
“No humans allowed: scientific AI agents get their own social network.”
“What 6,000 researchers think about the future of science.”

Like Retraction Watch? You can make a tax-deductible contribution to support our work, follow us on X or Bluesky, like us on Facebook, follow us on LinkedIn, add us to your RSS reader, or subscribe to our daily digest. If you find a retraction that’s not in our database, you can let us know here. For comments or feedback, email us at team@retractionwatch.com.

Sign up for our newsletter

in Retraction watch on 2026-04-25 10:00:00 UTC.

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One scientist’s 10-year quest to calculate the strength of gravity

Earth’s gravitational force, g, has been known for centuries. But the exact value of G, the universal gravitational constant, is elusive

in Scientific American on 2026-04-24 20:00:00 UTC.

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RFK, Jr., praises ibogaine for depression treatment. Is the psychedelic a magic bullet?

At a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., referred to ibogaine as the most promising treatment for PTSD and depression “that anybody’s ever seen.” Does the science hold that up?

in Scientific American on 2026-04-24 17:25:00 UTC.

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RFK, Jr., puts psychedelics on fast track to FDA review and approval

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is seeking to accelerate the review process for three companies that are studying psilocybin and an MDMA-like drug as treatments for depression and PTSD

in Scientific American on 2026-04-24 16:50:00 UTC.

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Alien comet reveals our solar system is the oddball

Measurements of this interstellar comet’s molecular makeup show an excess of heavy water molecules that is dramatically different from anything known to have ever formed around our sun

in Scientific American on 2026-04-24 16:30:00 UTC.

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How darkness might save migratory birds

Light pollution is dangerous for birds flying over towns and cities. Here’s how you can help

in Scientific American on 2026-04-24 16:20:00 UTC.

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New JWST images reveal cosmic question marks and buckyballs in a planetary nebula

New James Webb Space Telescope images could shed fresh light on how dying stars evolve over time

in Scientific American on 2026-04-24 15:15:00 UTC.

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Amateur armed with ChatGPT ‘vibe maths’ a 60-year-old problem

A ChatGPT AI has proved a conjecture with a method no human had thought of. Experts believe it may have further uses

in Scientific American on 2026-04-24 12:30:00 UTC.

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988 crisis hotline linked to drop in young adult suicide rates

The states with the greatest increases in 988 crisis hotline use since 2022 experienced the greatest decrease in suicide mortality, but the hotline alone may not explain the drop

in Scientific American on 2026-04-24 11:00:00 UTC.

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How geneticists uncovered a common root of two neurological diseases

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) can have the same genetic cause, a discovery that won two neurogeneticists a portion of the 2026 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences

in Scientific American on 2026-04-24 11:00:00 UTC.

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What happens if you’re hit by a primordial black hole?

Subatomic black holes from ancient cosmic history could, in principle, make you have a very bad day. But chances are you’ll never encounter one

in Scientific American on 2026-04-24 10:45:00 UTC.

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Trump wants Iran’s ‘nuclear dust.’ Here’s how the U.S. could remove the uranium

President Trump keeps promising to secure Iran’s nuclear “dust,” which is actually a gas

in Scientific American on 2026-04-24 10:30:00 UTC.

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From pet stores to pandemics—how wildlife trade helps diseases jump to humans

New research shows the global wildlife trade is rapidly accelerating the spread of animal pathogens that can jump to humans

in Scientific American on 2026-04-24 10:00:00 UTC.

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Africa could split apart sooner than scientists thought

New research reveals that a rift in Earth’s crust is just a few million years away from splitting the continent of Africa into two—and creating a new ocean

in Scientific American on 2026-04-24 10:00:00 UTC.

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Schneider Shorts 24.04.2026 – Competence and experience put to good use

Schneider Shorts 24.04.2026 - Sweden special with two misconduct findings and proof there's a life after those, an Italian gynecologist who keeps losing papers, with Nature's failed investigation and a stem cell nasal spray from Texas to cure everything!

in For Better Science on 2026-04-24 05:00:00 UTC.

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What Trump’s psychedelics executive order means for basic neuroscience

The order provides a potential path to remove some psychedelic drugs from the strictest regulatory category, yet it “may not be the breakthrough the basic research community has been looking for,” says neuroscientist Shawn Lockery.

in The Transmitter on 2026-04-24 04:00:01 UTC.

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Buying a first author slot can cost you anywhere from $56 to $5,600

The market for fake authorship on a research paper has prices to match every budget, according to a new dataset compiled from thousands of advertisements on social media platforms and paper mill websites.

The dataset, called BuyTheBy, is the first systematic attempt to understand the market for paper mill products, according to its creators. It compiles more than 18,000 text-based advertisements from seven paper mills operating across India, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Latvia, Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan, collected at various points between March 2020 to April 2026. The researchers found prices vary widely depending on geography, ranging from $56 to $5,631 for a first author slot, according to a preprint submitted to arXiv.

Several of the advertisements appear to correspond with published papers subsequently published in the targeted journals, with identical titles to those advertised. But cracking down on the industry with datasets such as these will be difficult, some experts say, especially as the business model evolves rapidly with AI.

Paper mills are businesses that sell fabricated manuscripts and authorship slots on those manuscripts, explained Reese Richardson, a researcher at Northwestern University in Chicago, and lead author of the preprint. The earliest reports of paper mill activity more than a decade ago came from China, where publishing was a prerequisite for graduation or promotion for biomedical researchers, and they became “easy targets” in schemes promising quick, guaranteed, authorship on English-language papers, according to a 2024 review of the industry.

For people with no research training and no funding, needing a published paper to advance their career, “coughing up a few thousand dollars in order to move on with their life” can be attractive, said Brian E. Perron, a professor of social work at the University of Michigan, who has written about the paper mill industry.

Paper mills have since flourished in countries where researchers are rewarded for a lengthy publication history with more funding or promotions. We’ve covered the sprawling paper mill market for years, including a Russian business claiming to have secured authorship slots for thousands of researchers, similar operations in Iran and Latvia, as well as journals’ efforts to clean out paper mill products from their catalogs. Research published last year by Richardson and colleagues found that paper mill fraud was accelerating far beyond what corrective measures such as retractions or flags on PubPeer could keep up with.

Finding channels peddling fake authorship “is so easy it will make your head spin,” Richardson said. He has joined dozens of Facebook groups, WhatsApp chats, Telegram channels, and pages on Instagram and LinkedIn to keep track of paper mill activity. To track one down, the trick is to think like their target market — desperate researchers. “If you look things up like an academic desperate for publications would, you will find them,” he said.

The price for first author slots ranged from $56 to $5,631, according to the dataset compiled by Richardson, Spencer Hong of Northwestern University and Anna Abalkina of Freie Universität Berlin, who also maintains the Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker. The highest prices generally came from ads posted by a paper mill operating in Russia, which caters to local and Kazakhstan-based researchers. The cheapest prices for authorship slots were from a paper mill operating in India, all priced below $150. The Indian mill’s Telegram channel posted more than 1,000 advertisements between March 2022 and July 2024.

Aside from article authorship, these included ads for textbook authorship, patents, copyright registrations, design registrations and even national awards. “Anything that could be counted toward a reputation is for sale,” Richardson said, explaining that patents count toward promotions and tenure in India.

Richardson attributes the price gap to income differences across the countries where the mills operate. Some fields, such as medicine and materials science, also seem to be more expensive than fields like business and education, though the current analysis was not designed to extract these conclusions.

The Indian paper mill almost exclusively advertised authorship positions in Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) conference proceedings and small, regional journals, with IEEE ads accounting for about 20 percent of the advertisements that named a specific publication. One ad posted in June 2024 called for authors on four papers targeting IEEE Xplore, promising Scopus indexation and no more than six authors per title. A spokesperson for IEEE told us, “When we become aware of possible issues with content, we take the time to carefully review and, when warranted, we retract nonconforming publications.”

The Iraq-based paper mill posted an advertisement in March 2024 targeting the Springer Nature journal Energy Systems with a paper titled “Optimizing Solar Energy Utilization: Insights on Energy Storage Battery Capacities and Residential Self-Sufficiency.” The authorship slots were advertised for $350 to $600. According to the advertisement, the paper had already passed the revision stage.

Energy Systems published a paper with that exact title in September 2024. The first author, Qusay Hassan, has a string of retractions related to late-stage authorship changes, and in those retractions, was unable to verify the contribution of the added authors. Last year, we also reported that he had received several awards from Iraq’s ministry of higher education and scientific research, despite his retraction record. He has not responded to requests for comment.

Tim Kersjes, head of research integrity at Springer Nature, said in an emailed statement they will investigate the cases flagged in the new dataset. He noted some advertised submissions are intercepted before publication, and ads don’t reliably indicate where a paper will be published. “Paper mill activity is adaptive and deliberately opaque, which means no single signal can or should be relied upon in isolation,” he said. Individuals they find to be involved face being added to internal watchlists that limit their ability to publish and can block them from roles in peer review and editorial boards, Kersjes said.

Richardson estimates that among the more than 5,500 unique products listed for sale, a simple search would turn up a significant number of published matches. “If you spent time actually trawling through the dataset, you would find quite a few,” he said. But paper mills can often change article titles and journal targets, he said, complicating efforts to detect the final product from the advertisement alone.

Matching ads to published papers can be based on a “preponderance of evidence,” Perron said. The sequence of events, matching titles and sometimes matching abstracts can all indicate a link between the ad and the publication, but still stop short of 100% certainty, said Perron, who was not involved in the new analysis.

The dataset covers seven paper mills and doesn’t include ones based in Iran or China, which are “huge players in the paper mill game,” Richardson said. The dataset also doesn’t capture whether purchases were completed and the papers ultimately published. “It’s far from comprehensive,” he said.

Perron sees the dataset as a snapshot of a business model that’s changing because of AI. “What we’re looking at is a historical view of where the paper mills have evolved,” he said, adding that the mills are probably outsourcing production to AI, but still handling the administrative route to publication.

Rather than undertaking a comprehensive analysis in this preprint, Richardson wants BuyTheBy to be the starting point for journals, publishers and other authorities to take action. “We compiled this dataset so that other people can use it,” he said, “and we hope that other people take on that analysis in whichever way that they feel fit.”

Perron thinks the dataset is useful for identifying possible fraud and making corrections, but won’t be enough to take on the industry that is rapidly evolving with AI-generated text. “The technology has advanced so fast and so quickly and has gotten so good,” he said, “that the [publishers] are struggling to figure out: how do you manage it?”

Like Retraction Watch? You can make a tax-deductible contribution to support our work, follow us on X or Bluesky, like us on Facebook, follow us on LinkedIn, add us to your RSS reader, or subscribe to our daily digest. If you find a retraction that’s not in our database, you can let us know here. For comments or feedback, email us at team@retractionwatch.com.

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in Retraction watch on 2026-04-23 21:19:03 UTC.

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Journal goes dark after impersonating Eric Topol and others

Within hours of researchers from prestigious institutions discovering they were listed as authors on a fabricated paper, the website for the journal and publisher has been taken down.

Cardiologist Eric Topol, the executive vice president of Scripps Research, posted on X yesterday that his name appeared on a “fraudulent” paper published in the so-called Journal of Digital Health Implementation. He suspected the article, dated March 29 and titled “Implementation Science for AI Integration in Digital Health Systems,” was AI-generated.

“If there ever was an AI-generated paper, this one would qualify as a high probability of being so,” Topol, who is also founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, told Retraction Watch.

Michael Matheny, a professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told us he discovered he was listed as an author on the paper after a colleague asked him about it. He then alerted the others listed, noting there were “small errors in the naming and affiliation.” For example, Matheny’s middle initial was incorrect, and several of the authors’ first initials were also wrong.

Of the six authors listed, five told us they had never seen the paper before. We couldn’t find a researcher matching the sixth name and affiliation, A. B. Martin with the Imperial College of London.

Adding the authors’ names on the fraudulent paper was “grossly illegal,” Topol said.

Identity theft in academia is something we see often. Researchers may impersonate reviewers or former colleagues, or be the target of hijacked journals. Some journals and organizations have proposed conducting identity checks.

Another listed author, Effy Vayena of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, told us the paper “clearly used names of well-known academics which increases the likelihood that the wider community might want to read it or potentially cite it.” Topol is one of the top 10 most cited researchers in medicine.

Topol posted about the paper on X in the early afternoon, and by the evening the website no longer loaded. Archived versions of the top-level domain, e-pubmed.co.uk, show the URL was formerly affiliated with another publication in Russian.

Before it was removed, the homepage for the “publisher” of the journal, Ellinger Publishing Media, bore a resemblance to that of Springer Nature Link, a portal to search all publications by the brand. The publisher listed four journals, including the Journal of Digital Health Implementation. The edition containing the fraudulent article was the first volume for the journal or the publisher.

The publisher’s homepage before the site went dark on April 22.

Ellinger Publishing claimed to be a U.K. publishing company but does not appear in the U.K. business registry. The listed address is a coworking space in London.

The DOI for the paper links to Zenodo, an open repository. The Zenodo page associated with the paper was removed for copyright infringement.

“What scares me is that we’ve reached a point where it’s difficult to protect our academic work and identity,” Vayena said. “This is incredibly dangerous not only for individual reputations and trust in academic work but also for the actual scientific knowledge.”

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in Retraction watch on 2026-04-23 19:29:04 UTC.

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in Scientific American on 2026-04-23 18:00:00 UTC.

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Wildfire ‘red flag’ warnings in effect for large chunk of the U.S. Here’s what to know

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in Scientific American on 2026-04-23 18:00:00 UTC.

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