Problematic Publications Are Polluting Scientific Literature
Currently, we have analyzed 29 Review articles published on "Journal of Controlled Release" in 2025 and 2026, under Open Access model, and found 14 (48%) of them have at least one problematic reference, which was flagged regarding their data/image integrity.
Our analysis exclusively includes open access review articles, as they are readily accessible to the public for verifying the findings of our study. This methodological choice does not imply that open access review articles have a higher likelihood of containing problematic references.
The 5GH Team also does not contend that review articles with problematic references suffer from integrity issues. Such problematic references are more likely due to authors failing to carefully verify the data or images in cited articles, as well as neglecting to check information on PubPeer or other post-publication review platforms. The purpose of our investigation is to remind the scientific community to exercise caution when selecting references.