Money in Exchange for Scientific Ranking: How Saudi Universities Deceive to Boost their Academic Standing
Academic fraud operations have proliferated in the Arab world, with individuals falsely claiming Ph.D. degrees and adopting the title of “Doctor.” These deceitful practices encompass the fabrication and plagiarism of research papers authored by others, along with the manipulation of university rankings, as exemplified by cases of forgery in Saudi Arabia.
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), academic fraud refers to the forgery of certificates, cheating in accreditation and examination data, academic misconduct, and the fabrication of higher degrees.
Recently, new forms of academic fraud have emerged, such as journals claiming to be scholarly and demanding monetary compensation for each published research paper. Some individuals pay these fees to be recognized as researchers and academic experts in their respective fields.
These journals allege that the payment goes to the reviewers to expedite their tasks, even though the research papers are not subjected to peer review.
This preys on the ambitions of those seeking to enhance their academic reputation for the purpose of career advancement, as reported by the Algerian newspaper Echorouk el-Yawmi on March 19, 2023.
Currently, one of the latest methods of academic fraud involves deception and falsification in academic publishing using “artificial intelligence,” as revealed by the Financial Times on May 11, 2023.
Social Status
An Egyptian presenter narrated a real incident to Al-Estiklal where he hosted a prominent media figure on one of his programs along with another journalist. The presenter and the guest journalist were aware that the renowned media figure, who refers to himself as a “doctor,” does not possess an academic degree.
He said: “Since the famous media figure was a guest on the program, and we studied at the same college, we knew that he did not obtain a doctoral degree. So, I asked him before the program, ‘How would you like your introduction on-air: Doctor or Professor?’”
He continued: “He hesitated and eventually admitted he should be referred to as a professor, not a doctor. I used to address him as Professor, but he stormed out angrily because the media had become accustomed to associating his name with the title of doctor.”
Such incidents are recurring in Egyptian programs, where individuals falsely claim academic titles for social status without actually holding the corresponding academic degrees.
Another form of academic fraud involves the sale and purchase of academic certificates (Master’s and Ph.D. degrees). A professor at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University recounted to Al-Estiklal that he witnessed cases where students, some of whom were wealthy individuals from Gulf countries, purchased ready-made academic certificates from high-achieving students in exchange for money.
He stated that some high-achieving university graduates who do not find suitable employment or college teaching assistants contract with others to write semi-prepared research papers in exchange for a sum of money. The payment allows the buyers to put their names on the papers and obtain academic degrees.
The most alarming revelation, brought to light by the British weekly scientific Nature Journal on May 11, 2023, is the existence of fake research papers produced by so-called research paper mills.
These organizations produce and sell fabricated or manipulated academic articles and papers to desperate researchers seeking to enhance their professional careers.
Nature Journal, the world’s most renowned scientific journal, exposed the scandal of some “Saudi universities entice top scientists to switch affiliations—sometimes with cash,” thereby falsifying their classification among world universities.
Science Scam
Among every five academic articles published in journals, one is based on fake data, according to a study conducted by German researchers who employed new techniques to detect academic fraud, as reported by the Financial Times.
The newspaper explained that these fraudulent research papers are produced by research paper mills, which are organizations that produce and sell fabricated or manipulated academic articles and papers to desperate researchers seeking to enhance their professional careers.
The German team was surprised to find a significant increase in the number of fake scientific papers in recent years, particularly in China, where some hospitals and Chinese health authorities require doctors to continuously produce research papers, which some of them fabricate.
The study also revealed that research paper mills, with annual revenues ranging from 3 to 4 billion dollars, sometimes resort to generating text using artificial intelligence and sell it to researchers in need.
The study, led by Professor Bernhard Sabel of the Medical Psychology Institute at Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, concluded that the majority of fake research originates from China.
The German team verified published research through simple steps, such as paying attention to the email addresses attached, identifying whether the author belongs to a hospital instead of a university, and comparing a sample of known counterfeit products with presumed original papers.
According to the study, the number of fake papers in the field of biomedical science increased from 16% in 2010 to 20% in 2020, with a significant rise in the field of neuroscience compared to clinical medicine.
A report published by the Financial Times on March 28, 2023, discussed the fake science industry in China and how it poses a threat to scientific and academic progress worldwide.
The newspaper emphasized that over the past two decades, Chinese researchers have become the world’s most prolific publishers of scientific papers, according to the Scientific Information Institute, a research analysis organization based in the United States.
It was mentioned that China produced 3.7 million research papers in 2021, accounting for 23% of the global output, slightly behind the 4.4 million research papers from the United States. However, many Chinese papers rely on recycling the same datasets.
The Financial Times quoted experts who stated that the impressive output of Chinese research papers hides methodological flaws and some form the basis for low-quality fraudulent research used by academics seeking prestigious positions at universities.
The newspaper mentioned that estimates suggest that 2 to 20% or more of published papers are fraudulent.
Brokers selling custom-written papers are spreading across Chinese e-commerce platforms on the Internet, including websites like Taobao, which charges customers $800 for an average medical publication.
A study by the Science website on May 9, 2023, confirmed that fake scientific papers are alarmingly common. However, there are new detection techniques being developed that offer hope in addressing the growing symptoms of the perish culture within academic circles.
Neuropsychologist Bernhard Sabel, the developer of a new method to detect fake research papers, was “shocked” by his findings.
He discovered that out of approximately 5,000 research papers, 34% of the papers published in 2020 in the field of neuroscience were “fabricated or stolen.”
Earlier, The Conversation website warned that fake scientific websites adapting their content to appear verified and trustworthy undermines “our trust” in experts as it manipulates and distorts information.
Enticing With Cash
According to the 2023 QS World University Rankings, King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia ranked first among Arab universities and 106th globally out of 200 universities.
As reported by CNN Arabic on January 24, 2023, three Saudi universities secured top positions in the rankings.
However, the surprising revelation published by Nature Journal is that some Saudi universities manipulated their rankings to achieve this high position.
They manipulated global university rankings by incentivizing top researchers to change their affiliations in order to improve their university’s ranking.
This was done by offering money to foreign researchers, enticing them financially to register their names and change their primary affiliations from other universities to Saudi universities, thus enhancing and falsifying the latter’s ranking among global universities.
Nature Journal stated that since early 2010, prominent researchers worldwide have been approached by Saudi universities, offering them cash in exchange for changing their affiliations.
The magazine presented the case of researcher Mira Petrovic from the Catalan Institute for Water Research in Girona, Spain, who received an email shortly after her appearance on a global ranking list in 2018, inviting her to collaborate with King Saud University.
Petrovic said that she thought they wanted to propose genuine cooperation, but after lengthy discussions, she received an email explicitly asking her to change her affiliation for money.
They told her that her primary affiliation should be King Saud University, and once she does that, she will receive 70,000 euros. Petrovic confirmed that she immediately rejected the Saudi offer because it lacked any academic content.
Earlier, the Spanish newspaper El Pais shed light on fraudulent practices employed by the Saudi system to improve the global ranking of its universities, gaining more scientific and subsequently political influence.
The newspaper mentioned that some renowned scientists from China and Spain are part of the Saudi system’s strategy to achieve this influence, and their inclusion as primary members of Saudi universities artificially enhances their position in the Shanghai Ranking.
The Shanghai Ranking, an annual prestigious ranking that measures the quality of education and research in various universities worldwide, is of utmost importance for political influence.
The Saudi system practiced offering money to researchers from China and Spain to change their academic affiliations.
In this regard, the Spanish newspaper points out that the Saudi financial offers regarding published studies target another factor in raising the academic ranking of the kingdom’s universities, which is the number of studies published in prestigious scientific journals such as Nature Journal and Science.
The newspaper concludes that the fraudulent practices involving false academic affiliations among Spanish scientists in Saudi system universities raise concerns about the methodology of global academic rankings. It urges scientists, institutions, and universities to take a stand against these practices.
According to a report published by SIRIS Academic, a Barcelona-based consultancy for higher education and research, dozens of the world’s most renowned researchers changed their primary affiliations to Saudi universities over the past decade, making them associated with those universities, thereby raising their global standing.
The report found that the number of globally ranked researchers affiliated with Saudi scientific institutions increased from 27 to 109 between 2014 and 2022. These researchers work in various fields, and many of them have secondary affiliations in countries such as Spain, China, the United Kingdom, Germany, and India.
The academy pointed out that fraudulent practices and misleading affiliations carried out by some higher education and research institutions in Saudi Arabia fuel doubts about the credibility of science and undermine the excellent work done by the majority of scientists worldwide.
