[Mitch]

Most journal editors know how much effort it takes to persuade busy researchers to review a paper. That is why the editor of The Journal of Enzyme Inhibition and Medicinal Chemistry was puzzled by the reviews for manuscripts by one author — Hyung-In Moon, a medicinal-plant researcher then at Dongguk University in Gyeongju, South Korea.

The reviews themselves were not remarkable: mostly favourable, with some suggestions about how to improve the papers. What was unusual was how quickly they were completed — often within 24 hours. The turnaround was a little too fast, and Claudiu Supuran, the journal's editor-in-chief, started to become suspicious.

Read the rest here:  Publishing: The peer-review scam

[Corribus]

If only people were smarter about how they cheated, they'd never get caught.

[Mitch]

@Corribus

In my experience, they are!

[billnotgatez]

I wonder how many of the papers were actually fairly good, but the author stooped so low as to use fake peer review scams just to make sure it got published. I wonder how many were garbage.