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

South Korea issued new guidelines that mandate detailing AI tools, ban hidden prompts, and restrict external AI use for sensitive data, according to Chosun. Separately, an experiment at the International Conference on Machine Learning found that 22.5% of peer reviewers asked not to use an LLM did so anyway, and the NIH detailed a $170 million biomedical research reproducibility effort. The Retraction Watch Database now holds over 67,000 retractions and its Hijacked Journal Checker more than 450 entries.

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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