Prevalence of nonsensical algorithmically generated papers in the scientific literature

In 2014 leading publishers withdrew more than 120 nonsensical publications automatically generated with the SCIgen program. Casual observations suggested that similar problematic papers are still published and sold, without follow-up retractions. No systematic screening has been performed prevalence of such in scientific literature is unknown. Our contribution 2-fold. First, we designed a detector combs for grammar-based computer-generated papers. Applied to SCIgen, it 83.6% precision. Second, scientometric study 243 detected SCIgen-papers from 19 publishers. We estimate be 75 per million Information Computing Sciences. Only 19% were dealt with: formal retraction (12) or silent removal (34). Publishers serve sometimes sell remaining 197 any caveat. found evidence citation manipulation via edited bibliographies. This work reveals metric gaming up point absurdity: fraudsters publish algorithmically featuring genuine references. It stresses need screen nonsense before peer-review chase Overall, this yet another illustration harmful effects pressure perish.