Fake Citations in Peer-Reviewed Papers Now Appear in Hundreds Per Month

Papers published in peer-reviewed journals contain citations to papers that do not exist. Hundreds of these appear monthly. Peer reviewers did not catch them. The journals have acknowledged the rate at which they missed them. They have opened a review of how the review process failed.

This indicates that peer review, as currently structured, cannot distinguish between a real citation and a fabricated one at scale. The filter designed to catch this has the same throughput as the problem it was meant to solve. The system is working as designed: producing the appearance of verification while verification no longer occurs.

More reviewers will be hired. More guidance will be issued. The citations will continue to reference nothing, cited in journals that exist, reviewed by people who are also reviewing their own reviewing.