The Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University opens new PhD position to better understand and combat paper mills

Wiley will sponsor the project, marking the publisher's continued investment in research integrity

HOBOKEN, NJ and LEIDEN, Netherlands - Today, the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University, in collaboration with the University of Sheffield, opened a new position for a PhD candidate to carry out research on paper mills and related forms of systematic manipulation in research and publishing. The research project will be carried out under the joint supervision of Wolfgang Kaltenbrunner (Leiden), Stephen Pinfield (Sheffield), and Ludo Waltman (Leiden), in collaboration with and sponsored by Wiley, one of the world's largest publishers.

The PhD candidate will produce original research that gains a deeper understanding of the scale and operation of paper mills, as well as of the complex interplay between the superstructure of incentives and varying research norms in scholarship that enable them. Anticipated outputs will advance knowledge and produce actionable insights for the research community, including by exploring approaches to systematic manipulation; helping inform academic evaluation criteria; enabling policymaking; and delivering recommendations that may be applied directly to scholarly publishing workflows.

Despite the well-documented threat presented by paper mills, there has been little formalized research to understand the mechanisms that allow them to thrive. A recent call for action underscores the need for robust research on this topic.

Wolfgang Kaltenbrunner, senior researcher and deputy director at CWTS, said, "We are excited about the opportunity to fund a 4-year PhD position through a partnership with Wiley. Papers mills and related forms of systematic manipulation in publishing are still vastly understudied in relation to the significance of the problem. The project will require innovative use of research methods as well as conceptually sophisticated analysis to unpack the embedding of paper mills in different research cultures."

"Research integrity is a significant priority for us at Wiley, and we continue to invest in our own teams, technologies and processes, as well as in industry initiatives that seek to uphold the values of research integrity," said Mike Streeter, Wiley Director of Research Integrity Strategy & Policy. "We're excited to formalize this partnership with CWTS and the successful candidate."

Stephen Pinfield, Professor of Information Services Management at the University of Sheffield said, "There is an urgent need for more research on this topic. I hope that partnership between academic researchers and Wiley on this project will yield important insights that make a difference to policy and practice".

The PhD candidate will undertake their research with independent supervision and, like all PhD candidates at CWTS, the project will undergo an institutional ethical review. The research outputs will be owned exclusively by the research team, published in an open access format, and, to the extent possible, will incorporate open research practices to ensure that others can build on this important work.

This collaboration builds on an extensive body of meta-research projects the team has carried out in the Research on Research Institute (RoRI), a consortium of funding bodies and academic institutions committed to better understanding and improving research culture.

Interested candidates can learn more and apply here. For more information on the background of the envisioned research, please see this blog post.

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About the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS)
The Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) is a research institute at Leiden University in the Netherlands. It is working on improving how science is practiced and governed and how it serves society. Besides our cutting-edge research, we provide training, consultancy, and research intelligence, engage in advocacy initiatives, and contribute to policy making. Our work focuses on three broad areas: (1) societal engagement and inclusion in the research system, (2) responsible research evaluation and healthy research cultures, and (3) openness of research information. For more information, please visit our website.

Media Contacts:
Geena De Rose / Wiley - gderose@wiley.com
Wolfgang Kaltenbrunner / CWTS - w.kaltenbrunner@cwts.leidenuniv.nl