# Weekend reads: ‘The Weimar of knowledge’; ‘Could AI Be Better at Peer Review Than Humans?’; guidelines in South Korea ban hidden prompts, restrict AI use > Source: > Published: 2026-09-26 10:00:00+00:00 If your week flew by — we know ours did — catch up here with what you might have missed. The week at Retraction Watch featured: - Misconduct case dropped against AI expert after claims of [AI use in recent book](https://retractionwatch.com/?p=136053) - Elsevier journal [retracts 100+ papers](https://retractionwatch.com/?p=136060) for authorship issues, editor conflicts of interest - Wiley investigating book chapter on biodiversity [for fake references](https://retractionwatch.com/?p=136075) - Tennessee researcher heads to court amid claims of [theft, forgery and revenge](https://retractionwatch.com/?p=136083) - Above and beyond: An editor wanted authors to know [they’d been falsely cited](https://retractionwatch.com/2026/09/25/above-and-beyond-an-editor-wanted-authors-to-know-theyd-been-falsely-cited/) In case you missed [the news](https://retractionwatch.com/2025/12/26/retraction-watch-hijacked-journal-checker-now-has-400-entries/), the [Hijacked Journal Checker](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ak985WGOgGbJRJbZFanoktAN_UFeExpE/edit?gid=5255084#gid=5255084) now has more than 450 entries. The [Retraction Watch Database](https://gitlab.com/crossref/retraction-watch-data) has over 67,000 retractions. Our [list of COVID-19 retractions](https://retractionwatch.com/retracted-coronavirus-covid-19-papers/) is approaching 700, and our [mass resignations list](https://retractionwatch.com/the-retraction-watch-mass-resignations-list/) has more than 50 entries. We keep tabs on all this and more. If you value this work, please consider showing your support with a tax-deductible donation. Every dollar counts. Here’s what was happening elsewhere (some of these items may be paywalled, metered access, or require free registration to read): - Researcher says academia will fall due to “[p]erverse incentives” that “sustained the publishing industry as we know it and blew up the bubble. AI is now pushing that trend into Weimar territory, [and papers will be worth nothing](https://giorgio.gilest.ro/the-weimar-of-knowledge/) .” - “Could AI Be [Better at Peer Review Than Humans](https://www.chronicle.com/article/could-ai-be-better-at-peer-review-than-humans) ?” - New guidelines in South Korea “mandate detailing AI tools, ban hidden prompts, [restrict external AI use for sensitive data](https://www.chosun.com/english/industry-en/2026/09/20/YIQ22FCKPVHH7AATU6B2VDWRXI/) .” - “Cambridge [Abandons Plans to Fully Investigate Its Hiring](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/world/europe/cambridge-jason-arday-investigation.html) of Jason Arday.” - Op-eds and academic articles by Dartmouth provost flagged as AI-written [by AI detector](https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026/09/schnell-ai-writing) . - “[Will retracting your paper ruin your career](https://www.normalcurves.com/ctrl-z-awards-will-retracting-your-paper-ruin-your-career/) ?” A podcast featuring the[inaugural winners of our Ctrl-Z Award](https://centerforscientificintegrity.org/2026/08/04/2026-winners-ctrl-z-award-courage-retracting-own-work/) . - “Genomics addressed its ethical concerns, [AI can do the same](https://www.ft.com/content/66403f97-a2f4-44d9-8835-d68e916981b2) ,” says director of bioinformatics institute. - “NIH details $170 million biomedical [research reproducibility effort](https://www.science.org/content/article/nih-details-170-million-biomedical-research-reproducibility-effort) .” - “Trust in data: reproducibility packages [do not guarantee validity](https://deevybee.blogspot.com/2026/09/trust-in-data-reproducibility-packages.html) .” - In an experiment at the International Conference on Machine Learning, 22.5% of peer reviewers asked not to use an LLM [did so anyway](https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.19420v1) . - *Journal of Academic Ethics*[retracts paper on “academic corruption” in Yemen](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10805-026-09764-x) for irrelevant and non-verifiable references. - Journal editor [developing system](https://medium.com/@TmlrOrg/asking-authors-about-their-own-papers-3d2e04e5dee0) to weed out authors “submitting AI-assisted papers[they ‘don’t understand](https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/researchers-submitting-ai-assisted-papers-they-dont-understand) .'” - University rector in Kyiv “suspected of [plagiarism and corruption](https://ua.news/en/capital/rektora-kiyivskogo-universitetu-imeni-grinchenka-turuntseva-zapidozrili-u-plagiati-ta-koruptsiyi) .” - “AI conference ICLR is drowning in abstracts, with [roughly 50,000 submissions before the deadline](https://the-decoder.com/frustrated-authors-withdraw-papers-after-realizing-their-reviewers-are-just-lazy-language-models/) .” - “3 terabytes of biomedical research data allegedly transferred in [UT MD Anderson trade-secret investigation](https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2026/08/26/3-terabytes-of-biomedical-research-data-allegedly-transferred-in-ut-md-anderson-trade-secret-investigation/) .” - “Discredited UIC lab manager Jennifer Bash is [back on the witness stand](https://www.injusticewatch.org/project/forensic-failures/2026/discredited-uic-forensic-scientist-called-to-testify/) .” - “Hundreds of ‘free’ academic journals have [started charging fees](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02818-5) ,” a move many editors[have resigned over](https://retractionwatch.com/the-retraction-watch-mass-resignations-list/) . - “China must enforce [high standards of integrity](https://www.scmp.com/opinion/comment/article/3367963/china-must-enforce-high-standards-integrity-scientists) for scientists.” - “Claudine Gay Is Back at Harvard—to [Teach a Class About Harvard](https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/harvard-university-claudine-gay-class-cf6ce2c3) .” She resigned as president of the university after being[accused of plagiarism](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/20/us/harvard-claudine-gay-plagiarism.html) . - “Boston cans reparations report after lead researcher’s academic integrity [comes under fire](https://www.bostonherald.com/2026/09/17/boston-cans-reparations-report-after-lead-researchers-academic-integrity-comes-under-fire/) .” - “How scientific publishers are fighting back [against fraudulent papermills](https://physicsworld.com/a/how-scientific-publishers-are-fighting-back-against-fraudulent-papermills/) .” - “Economics journals are [governed by a shrinking elite](https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2026/09/23/economics-journals-are-governed-by-a-shrinking-elite/) .” - University “[dropped from lawsuit by U.S. politician](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/doug-mastriano-lawsuit-update-unb-9.7354073) over release of his widely criticized PhD thesis.” A researcher said in 2024 he found “[213 cases of academic fraud or misconduct](https://www.cityandstatepa.com/politics/2024/09/doug-mastriano-sues-university-academics-criticizing-dissertation/399705/) ” in the thesis. - “Lack of female researchers and participants in regenerative-medicine research [holds everyone back](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02857-y) .” - Researchers find quality ratings of psychology manuscripts “were affected by sample sizes but [not by statistical significance or the presence of statistical reporting errors](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0355938) in the rated research vignette.” - “From Inside Ethics Review Boards: [On Consent, Context and Who it Protects](https://voelkerrechtsblog.org/from-inside-ethics-review-boards/) .” - “China’s Price of Retraction: [Wasted Research Funding and Beyond](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/leap.2102) .” - “AI companies must work with the research community [to protect attribution](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02886-7) .” And “Who gets credit in the AI era?[OpenAI maths bombshell sparks debate](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02910-w) .” - “Can researchers trust that AI models [won’t leak their ideas](https://sciencebusiness.net/news/ai/can-researchers-trust-ai-models-wont-leak-their-ideas) ?” - “The AI Discourse in Academia is Toxic. [It Doesn’t have to be](https://blekhman.substack.com/p/the-ai-discourse-in-academia-is-toxic) .” - “What if AI can make Science Better, [not just Faster](https://diffdx.substack.com/p/what-if-ai-can-make-science-better) ?” - “AI co-scientists are [revolutionizing how research is done](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02931-5) .” - “AI [saves scientists seven hours a week](https://www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-world-2026-9-ai-saves-scientists-time-but-adds-verification-tax-paper-finds/) ,” but they spend “‘meaningful share’ of that gain verifying AI-generated results,”[study finds](https://ai.google/static/documents/AI-in-Science.pdf) . - “[The hidden cost of positivity](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ael2131) : Ensuring integrity in scientific research.” - “Ten simple rules for suggesting reviewers [during a paper submission](https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1014780) .” *Like Retraction Watch? 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