Springer Science+Business Media controversies
Controversies tied to this brand in public sources. A listing is not a finding of fault.
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2020
Journal self-citation and impact-factor suspensions
Seven Springer Nature journals were among the titles whose 2019 impact factors were suspended from Journal Citation Reports after unusual self-citation patterns were identified. The episode formed part of a wider debate about bibliometric manipulation and incentives in scholarly publishing.
2015
Fraudulent peer-review process
Springer retracted 64 papers from 10 journals after a fraudulent peer-review process was uncovered.
2014
SCIgen-generated conference papers
An investigation found that 16 papers in Springer conference proceedings had been generated by SCIgen, a software program capable of producing nonsensical computer-science papers. Springer retracted the affected papers.
1938
Editorial pressure involving Zentralblatt MATH under Nazi rule
Springer-Verlag was pressured to apply Nazi racial and political principles to the journal Zentralblatt MATH. Jewish mathematician Tullio Levi-Civita was removed from the editorial board, while Otto Neugebauer and much of the remaining board resigned in protest.