A Lancet letter reporting a 12-fold increase in fabricated citations in PubMed-indexed papers over just two years, with 1-in-277 papers in early 2026 showing fabricated references. This is a landmark data point on AI-enabled research integrity collapse at scale. The biomedical literature — the most consequential scholarly corpus for human welfare — is being systematically polluted. This has direct implications for publishers, indexers, AI training data quality, and public trust in science. Essential coverage for P2P Review. Pairs with IOP's duplicate review detector story.

Source: Retraction Watch