Wiley Announces Pilot of AI-powered Papermill Detection Service

NISO Member News

London, UK | March 13, 2024

The Papermill Detection service is one of many ways Wiley is advancing its technology to meet the specific needs of research publishers and societies while making publishing more efficient, effective, and fit for the challenges of the future. 

“Our leadership in research publishing technology, paired with our own significant experience in combatting papermills, uniquely positions Wiley to develop this technology,” said Jay Flynn, Wiley Executive Vice President & General Manager, Research & Learning. “We’re grateful to IEEE and Sage for helping us fine tune these advanced checks that will ultimately benefit the entire scholarly publishing industry.”

Designed to safeguard research integrity, this new service incorporates six distinct tools to identify potentially compromised research content. These tools include:

• Papermill similarity detection – checks for known papermill hallmarks and compares content against existing papermills papers, 
• Problematic phrase recognition – flags unusual alternatives to established terms (such as tortured phrases),
• Unusual publication behavior detection – identifies irregular publishing patterns by paper authors,
• Researcher identity verification – helps detect potential bad actors,
• Gen-AI generated content detection – identifies potential misuse of generative AI; and the
• Journal scope checker – analyzes the article’s relevance to the journal.

Wiley is focused on bringing research publishing into the future and embracing the promise and potential of AI. Wiley is also committed to responsible AI and is developing products to complement, not substitute, the sophisticated and nuanced decision making of our users, including authors, reviewers, and editors.

"We at IEEE know that we cannot solve these widespread research integrity challenges alone. We need partners like Wiley who can bring both technology solutions and a deep understanding of the scholarly communications environment to address these issues," said Steven Heffner, IEEE Managing Director, Publications.

“At Sage, we work toward ensuring that the scholarship we publish is robust, accurate, and authentically produced. To reach this goal and tackle unethical research practices, we need tools that allow reviewers and editors to focus on the content of the research instead of questioning its authenticity. We welcome opportunities to experiment and collaborate and are delighted to partner with Wiley on the Papermill Detection service,” said Bob Howard, Executive Vice President of Research at Sage.

The Papermill Detection service will be available through Research Exchange, an integrated, state-of-the-art, submission and peer review system, as soon as next year.  It builds on the significant work in progress across Wiley Partner Solutions and complements other AI tools already in use across the publishing workflow, such as Atypon’s manuscript transformation, search and discovery, and taxonomy auto-tagging features.

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About Wiley

Wiley is a knowledge company and a global leader in research, publishing, and knowledge solutions. Dedicated to the creation and application of knowledge, Wiley serves the world's researchers, learners, innovators, and leaders, helping them achieve their goals and solve the world's most important challenges. For more than two centuries, Wiley has been delivering on its timeless mission to unlock human potential. Visit us at Wiley.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.