Academic fraud has compelled Wiley, a leading publisher of scientific journals, to shut down 19 journals after several were rife with research fraud. Over the past two years, Wiley has retracted north of 11,300 papers filled with fraudulent content.

The academic publishing industry is quite lucrative in how it rakes in roughly $30 billion in revenue. Roughly 40% of this revenue comes from within the United States. In order to have a research paper published in a premier journal, the research team must cough up several thousand dollars. 

Research teams will pay hefty sums to be published in these journals in order to receive grants, obtain and keep academic tenure, and move from the state of a low-earning post-doctoral researcher. 

Such corruption has grown more prominent over time due to the general acceptance of mediocrity and corruption in academia. In a culture where integrity is not respected and people are willing to advance at all costs, there’s very little respect for honest work. 

Should such trends continue, academia as we know it will cease to be a respectable institution, and the US’s reputation as a high-performing world power will be forever tarnished.