Fake journals published by Addleton Academic Publishers manipulated citation metrics through cross-referencing and AI-generated papers to achieve top rankings in Scopus philosophy journal rankings, affecting academic evaluation processes at universities.
Researchers at Jagiellonian University in Krakow discovered that three journals published by Addleton Academic Publishers ranked in the top 10 of Scopus philosophy journal rankings for 2023: Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations (3rd out of 806), Review of Contemporary Philosophy (5th), and Analysis and Metaphysics (6th). These journals achieved high rankings through extensive cross-citations, with 208 of 541 citations to the top-ranked journal coming from other Addleton publications. The journals contained automatically generated papers using identical templates and buzzwords like 'blockchain,' 'metaverse,' and 'deep learning.' Papers claimed to analyze 170-180 articles before focusing on 30-35, using identical phrases that appeared 270 times in Google Scholar solely in Addleton journals. Many authors and affiliations appeared fake, including institutions like 'The Cognitive Labor Institute in New York' with aa-er.org email addresses linked to a residential address in Queens. Four of Addleton's nine Scopus-indexed journals were subsequently removed due to 'Publication Concerns.' The manipulation affected university evaluation processes that use firm percentile cutoffs for awards and promotions, pushing legitimate journals to lower tiers in institutional rankings.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to gain a personal advantage over others such as through cheating, fraud, scams, blackmail or targeted manipulation of beliefs or behavior. Examples include AI-facilitated plagiarism for research or education, impersonating a trusted or fake individual for illegitimate financial benefit, or creating humiliating or sexual imagery.
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed