What to do when shaky science gains traction

When scientific research gets published, it’s natural to expect its rigor and quality to meet high standards. However, what happens when a paper with questionable origins makes its way into trusted ecosystems like Wikipedia and mainstream news?

While the answer lies in developing better systems for vigilance, the deeper challenge is  understanding how these signals of trust and legitimacy can be manipulated, and how we can work to protect them.

This question has been at the forefront of a recent analysis conducted by Dr Leslie McIntosh (VP of Research Integrity, Digital Science) and Federica Silvi (Product Manager, Altmetric). In their recently published article on the Forensic Scientometrics Substack, they used Altmetric  to uncover subtle but disturbing patterns on how questionable research gains visibility. By closely examining attention metrics, they revealed how some dubious scientific articles can find themselves cited, shared, and even legitimized in public-facing platforms.

This blog dives deeper into their analysis, highlights the example of a specific paper tracked using Altmetric Explorer, and explores why these findings matter for the integrity of science.

How research attention can be amplified beyond academia

Dr McIntosh and Silvi outline how questionable papers once published can appear credible. They may have:

• DOIs
• Ethical declarations
• Placement in reputable journals and indexing services

From there, they can gain further visibility through:

• Wikipedia citations, which are widely trusted
• Mentions in news outlets, sometimes through syndicated or aggregated content
• Search engine visibility, where these mentions push them into public view

As they explain, this doesn’t necessarily indicate manipulation, but the pattern of attention, especially outside traditional academic channels, is worth examining.

Why this matters

As Dr McIntosh and Silvi note, visibility can sometimes be mistaken for validity. In a media and information environment where content moves quickly and is often trusted without deeper inspection, even modest attention can have real-world influence.

This is why Altmetric’s ability to trace and contextualize online attention matters, not only for publishers and researchers, but also for journalists, librarians, and anyone invested in preserving research integrity.

Read the complete article, Research, Attention, and Manipulation, to better understand the nuances of:

• The editorial norms of platforms like Wikipedia
• The structure of news syndication and content reuse
• The role of anonymity, traceability, and transparency in online attention

Altmetric cannot determine which research is valid. But it can provide researchers and institutions with early insight into how that research is gaining attention and help identify patterns that deserve further scrutiny.If you are interested in how attention data surfaced by Altmetric Explorer can support research integrity, public trust, and better decision-making, contact the Altmetric team.