China released the findings from the investigation into the faked peer review academic scandal surrounding the cancer research journal, Tumor Biology, on Thursday.
The Ministry of Science and Technology (MST) found that two of the 107 papers retracted from Tumor Biology had been redundantly published, while one had been mistakenly retracted.
It was found that 101 papers had been submitted with fabricated peer reviewer suggestions, said He Defang, director of the Policy and Supervision Division of the MST.
Constituting a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession, peer review is often used to weed out pseudoscientific babble and provide credibility to academic research.
Considered one of the golden standards, it is often an integral process in academic publishing.
All 107 papers were published between 2012 and 2015, and were authored by 125 Chinese research organizations and four foreign research organizations.
376 authors involved in the scandal will receive punishment, said He Defang.
Parallel to this, China has already suspended 20 national scientific research projects, in which 21 authors related to the scandal are participating.
