Can you trust the accuracy of what you’re reading in science publications anymore? From the blog Retraction Watch:
“Following our coverage this summer of a book with citations [references] that did not exist, we asked you to send us examples of other books with similar issues. One reader took the request as an assignment to find problematic texts.
“Michał Wójcik, a Ph.D. student at the Free University of Berlin, saw a link to our article about the book on LinkedIn. ‘I started thinking that it shouldn’t be that hard to check those references automatically,’ he said. ‘I decided to just spend some time on it, and I had a prototype in a few hours.’
“The Python script he wrote searches through books to verify the existence of each citation by checking if the DOI [(digital object identifier) for it] existed in Crossref. He told us he manually checked citations the script couldn’t identify by looking in other databases and searching on Google Scholar, which takes him between an afternoon and a whole day. …
“As we described in our coverage earlier this year, large language models like ChatGPT often generate nonexistent and error-prone citations. Publisher guidelines often forbid wholesale generation of text by AI [artificial intelligence]. However, AI may be used in other aspects of academic book publishing, like copyediting or translation, sometimes with disclosure requirements. …”
[Which is one reason why highly skilled science and medical editors and translators are losing authors and publishers as clients, to the detriment of readers who seek accuracy. Those clients are hoping to save themselves money by not hiring or contracting with humans.]
“While Springer Nature started using AI to translate books experimentally in 2023, it is not the only publisher pursuing AI translations. In March, the publisher Taylor and Francis announced plans to start using AI to translate books into English.
“The publisher has retracted individual chapters and entire books for references that could not be verified. In total, the Retraction Watch Database contains over 240 books with one or more chapters retracted for a variety of reasons by their publishers. …”
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