House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, above, and subcommittee chair Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., are demanding answers from federal agencies about what safeguards they have in place to prevent falsified or plagiarized studies tied to CCP-backed publishing operations from influencing federal grants and research. ( Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
In the letters, the committee asks the Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to provide information on how agencies vet published studies used in funding decisions, whether they screen for ties to foreign adversaries or paper-mill activity, and what steps are taken when fraudulent research is identified.
The committee also requests briefings on how agencies plan to strengthen oversight and protect taxpayer-funded science from compromised or manipulated findings.
Fox News Digital has asked the five agencies to provide a response.
The committee pointed to a 2006 Alzheimer’s disease study, which helped popularize the so-called "amyloid hypothesis," and was later revealed to have relied on fabricated data — yet the findings were used for years to justify research priorities and funding decisions at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
According to the committee, NIH continued to fund research based on the faulty hypothesis for roughly 16 years, culminating in the approval of an experimental drug aimed at stabilizing amyloid proteins in the brain — before the underlying research was exposed as fraudulent.
Lawmakers warn the case illustrates how fake or manipulated studies can embed themselves into the scientific ecosystem, misdirecting funding, delaying legitimate breakthroughs, and eroding trust in federally supported research.
Lawmakers say the scale of the retractions underscores how paper mills have been able to exploit peer-review systems and push fake research into respected publications — where it can be cited, relied upon, and reused long before problems are detected. (Reuters)
In some cases, publishers have been forced to retract thousands of articles linked to suspected paper-mill activity, and entire journals have been shut down after fraud was uncovered.
Public trust in science and federal research institutions has already been shaken — a trend exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic — raising concerns that further revelations could deepen skepticism toward taxpayer-funded science.
The committee ties much of the paper-mill activity to Chinese Communist Party–linked academic incentives, arguing that China’s centralized "publish or perish" system has fueled demand for fabricated research.
According to sources cited in the letters, Chinese researchers face intense pressure to continually publish in order to secure jobs, promotions, and funding — a system that lawmakers say has encouraged widespread abuse, including ghostwriting, data fabrication, and the purchase of authorship slots.
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The letters cite surveys showing that nearly half of medical residents at some Chinese hospitals admitted to buying or selling papers or hiring ghostwriters, while other investigations found that Chinese institutions have historically offered large cash rewards for publication in elite Western journals.
Although Beijing announced reforms aimed at curbing cash-for-publication incentives, the committee argues those efforts have been poorly enforced and riddled with loopholes, allowing paper mills to continue operating at scale.
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