Since 2021, the open-access journal PLOS One has faced a dramatic increase in paper mills and low-quality submissions, prompting editors to adopt a flexible, multi-pronged strategy to maintain research integrity. A new quality improvement study, presented at the 10th Peer Review Congress in September 2025, examines the impact of these preventive measures.
Researchers analyzed trends in large-scale integrity issues—dubbed "megacases"—at PLOS One between 2021 and 2024. They found that the journal's agile approach, which includes enhanced screening and reviewer validation, has helped identify and block problematic submissions before publication. The study highlights the effectiveness of proactive interventions in curbing the influence of fraudulent actors on scholarly literature.