AI-Generated Papers Are Filling Journals with Nonsense Like 'Vegetative Electron Microscopy'
Vegetative Electron Microscopy WTF? (2025)
A meaningless phrase, 'vegetative electron microscopy,' has spread through scientific papers after an OCR error merged 'vegetative cell' and 'electron microscopy' from a 1959 paper. David Bradley argues that this fingerprint reveals paper-mill fraud and that publishers, editors, and referees are failing to catch AI-generated drivel, polluting the literature and undermining trust in science.
The presence of this fingerprint phrase is not an accident, it’s not a typo, it shows that the paper was faked.