No. 127: Paper Mills

Imagine dedicating your life to medical research that may one day lead to a new breakthrough treatment or cure, only to be stymied by fraudulent research mixed in with all the good stuff. That's the reality facing not just the medical community but scientific research as a whole: tens of thousands of low-quality, fraudulent papers have been retracted in recent years.

Now the community is fighting back with tools to identify high risk papers and research collaborators. If that sounds familiar, it's because it's reminiscent of our discussion on software to appeal insurance claims.

If you're a marketing professional, you can't miss the featured job this week. It's all about inspiring environmental impact through filmmaking – so, so cool. I've also got a small but mighty job board to share with you below, so let's hop in!

~ Greg

What we're reading

The scientific community is fighting a glut of fraudulent journal papers that's making it more difficult to advance medical research. (Popular Science)

• This has been going on for years apparently. I found similar stories in the Financial Times and Vox, with emphasis placed on emerging economies and China in particular.
  • From what I can tell, this is another case of metrics gone mad. Researchers' promotions are often tied to the number of papers they publish, which incentivizes higher quantities of low-quality research.
  • As one Beijing researcher told the FT, "When prospective employers look at our CVs, it is much easier for them to judge the quantity of our output over the quality of the research."
• You might be thinking, well isn't the "peer review" of peer-reviewed journals able to catch this?
  • Around 55,000 papers have been retracted to date, and there may be hundreds of thousands of fraudulent papers circulating in the community. The scale of the issue makes catching the errors more difficult.
  • The peer review process itself has also been subverted. The journal Nature discovered cases where researchers gave fake email addresses for peer reviewers then posed as them to back up their papers.
• Ultimately, this makes it very difficult for researchers to advance scientific discovery. Research builds on what came before: scientists have to sift through what is reliable and what is fabricated so they aren't building on a fraudulent foundation.
• Fortunately, the scientific community is building tools to address the problem. One such tool helps researchers determine if new collaborators have had their research retracted in the past. Another scans articles for signs that the authors or references lack pedigree.
  • Coincidentally, the first tool, Argos, was created by a public benefit corporation. You love to see it!
• This is an issue that we're facing more broadly and accelerated by the advent of generative AI. Content is much easier to produce than ever before, and it's not always correct. It's practically pollution in our information streams, and we need to clean it up before it causes real harm.

Job of the week

Seriously, social impact jobs can be so cool. Case in point: The Redford Center is looking for a new Marketing & Communications Director to join their team, and if you aren't familiar with their work, they produce films designed to inspire environmental impact. Yes, the "Redford" in The Redford Center is indeed Robert Redford of Hollywood fame. To date, the nonprofit has worked on 150 projects so far, sometimes in a supporting role and sometimes as the producer.

Qualifications are very reasonable for a mid- or senior-level marketing professional. You don't need to be part of the film industry, but you do need a passion for the environment – perhaps the easiest qualification of all, since you're the kind of person who reads this newsletter!

Community roundup

• The largest solar cell factory in the United States has launched into pilot production in South Carolina and is expected to grow to support 500 employees by summer. (Electrek)
• One of the most prominent Certified B Corps, Dr. Bronner's, has announced plans to drop its B Corp certification later this year when it is up for renewal. (Fast Company)
  • The company has raised concerns alongside fellow B Corps as larger, multinational companies have managed to secure B Corp certifications. At issue is whether the B Corp label is being used for greenwashing purposes because companies can qualify without meeting minimum standards in each of the impact assessment areas.
  • A few weeks ago, I wrote about the chance that the public benefit corporation entity type, a legal structure, might be headed in that direction as well.
  • I would offer that the exclusivity of the B Corp label is part of what gives it its credibility, but as the movement grows, it risks diluting that credibility under the weight of its big umbrella. It will be interesting to see if other companies follow in Dr. Bronner's footsteps, and if so, whether competing standards emerge.
• The Department of Housing and Urban Development released its Point-in-Time report on homelessness which showed that adults over 65 were the fastest growing age group of unhoused people. (Bipartisan Policy Center)
• Honda and Nissan have broken off their EV-focused merger that would have made them the fourth-largest auto group in the world. Nissan is now looking for new partners as both automakers aim to catch up in the EV race. (Electrek)
• The new mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma has expressed support for a reparations plan that would provide financial compensation to victims and descendants of the Tulsa Massacre. (Reuters)
• Google Calendar has been updated to remove references to Black History Month, Women's History Month, and Pride Month. (The Guardian)
  • Don't worry, I'll remind you. 🫡

Civic corner

• Employees working on environmental justice at the EPA were placed on administrative leave last Thursday, which affects around 170 employees. (NPR)
• The Federal Election Commission is made up of three Republicans and three Democrats and serves as a campaign watchdog agency. Its chair, Ellen Weintraub, announced that President Trump has tried to fire her improperly and is refusing to leave her position. (NPR)
  • In researching this, I found out that Weintraub is serving an expired term and that the commission already has a vacancy. No party can hold more than three seats, so I'm interested to see whether and how they build a majority on a panel that is supposed to safeguard election integrity.
• When I shared 5 Calls last week, I didn't expect so many people to call their elected leaders! In one case, the Senate phone system, which normally receives 40 calls per minute, was receiving 1600 per minute. (NYT)
• Executive orders came quickly, and now we're starting to see the legal response:
  • A federal judge has blocked the National Institutes of Health from cutting medical research funding.
  • Three federal judges have blocked the executive order on birthright citizenship.
  • A district judge ordered HHS, the CDC, and the FDA to restore their websites and datasets.
  • A federal judge extended the federal buyout from the "fork in the road" email until the administration responds to issues raised by the associated workers' unions.
  • No guarantees here, but it seems to me that any sort of checks and balances are going to come out of the judicial branch, not the legislative branch – at least in the short term.
• DOGE announced $900 million in cuts to the part of the Department of Education that focuses on education research and statistics, like studying public school performance. (ProPublica)

Hot job opportunities

• Designer – The Marshall Project – Remote
• Content Creator (Part-Time Contractor) – Saalt – Remote
• Executive Director – Global Energy Monitor – Remote
• Product Manager – Relentless – Remote
• Staff Software Engineer – FreeWill – Remote
• Graphics Specialist – Urban3 – Asheville, NC
• Communications and Digital Manager – Greenlight America – Remote
• Full Stack Developer – Sunairio – Remote
• Accounting Representative – Jitasa – Remote
• Administrative Assistant – Planet Reimagined – Remote

Resource of the week

I've got another climate-related job board to add to your bookmarks this week: the aptly-named Green Jobs Board. They don't have quite as many job opportunities as some other job boards I've featured here, but I like the way they group their job opportunities by "pathways" (read: career paths) and they have a set of easily-digestible blog posts to guide you in your job search process.

If you're on LinkedIn, you might consider giving their page a follow: they do a good job of reposting job announcements from other companies, and since referrals are one of the best ways to find a job, this gets you about as close to a hiring manager connection as you can get.

Test your knowledge

We took a look at fair trade practices last week, and if you guessed that Ben & Jerry's was the company that fully transitioned to Fairtrade Certified ingredients in 2014, you were spot on. They started the journey in 2005, which just goes to show how complicated it is to build a supply chain aligned to your values.

This week, I wanted to spotlight the work that President Carter took on after leaving office:

What disease did The Carter Center target with their humanitarian work, effectively eradicating a disease that once plagued 3.5 million people?

Email me your guess, and I'll send a couple of One Work stickers your way.

I picked up a Valentine's Day card over the weekend, which means I'm too prepared for this Friday. I'm going to miss hanging out with the other last-minute-valentine shoppers in the card aisle.

Until next week, change agent.