Reese Richardson

Science and Retraction Watch just released a large investigation into what I consider a new breed of paper mill. I can explain this phenomenon no better than Frederik Joelving’s article in Science, which you can read here:

Prescription for controversy: Firms offering a fast track to publication target foreign applicants to U.S. medical residency programs

Essentially, these businesses sell guaranteed publications to international medical graduates (IMGs) hoping to attain medical residency in the United States. These publications will hypothetically beef up the customer’s CV and increase their chances of being matched.

Many such businesses are based in the United States. They mostly follow variations on the same playbook: for a hefty sum (often around 1,000 USD), the customer can attend an online course (often meeting once a week for an hour for four to eight weeks), after which their name will be on one to five meeting abstracts or articles in the “peer reviewed” and indexed literature.

Hassaan Tohid, co-founder and CEO of the California Institute of Behavioral Neurosciences and Psychology (CIBNP), explains in this video that his program offers courses matching this pattern where customers will obtain one published paper as first author, four published papers as middle author, a letter of recommendation, a certificate of completion, and permission to list CIBNP as an institutional affiliation for two years.

Is eight hours of instruction enough for someone to make a genuine contribution to five research papers? I would contend not, but that doesn’t seem to matter to the people selling these courses. Often, the main selling point isn’t training, but clout. Among the benefits of these programs, CIBNP lists:

Increase chances of residency in the US because only 1 in 3 residency candidates who match has publications. Now just think and answer, how many of these candidates have Meta-Analysis or Systematic Reviews published? Very very very few….. right? Once you have this publication, you will be one of the top most candidates applying for the US residency.
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Having a Meta-Analysis not only open doors for you as a clinician but opens more doors for you in the university, pharmaceutical, and corporate industry. You can just ask any employer and hand them 2 CVs. One with a Meta-Analysis published, other without it. Then ask them to invite only one for the interview- you will see majority will call the candidate with Meta-Analysis for interview because of immediate impression of being an expert in the field.
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More feeling of success- once you feel success only then you can know what success is really all about. Success is a feeling which is actually a kind of healthy addiction. Once you are on a journey of success, you want to repeat the process to get the same feeling again and again. Once you learn Meta-Analysis and writing a manuscript, you surely will feel that feeling that is priceless.
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California name on your CV will do wonders for you for your future.

CIBNP’s website, in anticipation of the Science and Retraction Watch investigation, now bears a banner reading “WE DO NOT OFFER PUBLICATIONS“. Beneath this banner, they offer “the chance to get publications”.

Below, the website reads:

While so many CiBNP students who learn to write scientific articles successfully write great articles, there still are some students who would make mistakes, and unintentional errors.

While we teach them research methodology and writing, and look after their writing style and rules and methodology, we do know that in order to get a fast publication some students may produce low quality papers. Therefore, if you come across papers written by our students and find mistakes and errors, rather than laughing, mocking, or making fun of them or criticizing them, please respectfully point out the mistakes so the author can learn and write an improved version of article in the future.

Our students are young doctors, and your mocking and criticism can destroy their confidence and self-esteem and they may give up and stop writing in the future.

Many of our students don’t produce highest quality of articles but we still appreciate our students and love them unconditionally.

We teach our students honesty, and integrity, and educate them about the importance of truth and honesty. Yet it is also possible that any of our students lies or fabricates data in the paper deliberately. Therefore, we CiBNP hold no responsibility of the content of the article produced. We teach the students the importance of honesty and integrity and if they still don’t listen to us and make intentional mistakes or fabricate the data, and submit to a journal and accidentally the journal reviewers missed the mistakes and journal publishes that article, then the student is himself/herself responsible.

Just like a medical school that trains students to become doctors and if the same student becomes a corrupt doctor or harms the patient deliberately or unintentionally, is the medical school responsible? Similarly, when a building or a bridge collapses due to bad calculations by the civil engineers, should we hold the engineering university responsible? The obvious answer is NO.

Similarly, if our students who learned the skill of writing and make deliberate mistakes or are involved in scientific fraud or fabrication of data, should we be responsible? For this reason we don’t take responsibility of the scientific content and our students sign an agreement and agree that they are fully responsible for the content. CiBNP and its faculty can only teach and guide but are not responsible for the content, fabrication, or deception or lies of any kind, the content is solely Students’ responsibility.

As you might guess from this disclaimer absolving CIBNP from any of its student’s errors or misconduct, the publications produced by these training programs are often not very good. I’ve included an updating list of select PubPeer threads for articles originating from these businesses at the bottom of this post.

The global landscape of medical training is exceptionally unequal and hyper-competitive. Within this system, dozens of businesses have emerged to prey on aspiring doctors from the Global South, litter the medical literature with low-quality and fraudulent studies, and throw these doctors under the bus when the backlash begins. While some of these businesses may have helped a handful of doctors to surmount the high walls surrounding the United States medical system, the for-profit nature of these businesses ensures this privilege is only available to those that can pay, perpetuating the same inequality that these businesses claim to fight. CIBNP is right; the victims of these businesses deserve our compassion, not our scorn.

As long as global economies of scientific and medical research remain highly stratified and cutthroat, paper mills will continue to materialize to exploit these ills and the people most vulnerable to them.

Selected publications from IMG-targeting paper mills (PubPeer threads, last updated 19 January, 2026)

California Institute of Behavioral Neurosciences and Psychology

1. Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha Blockade and Multiple Sclerosis: Exploring New Avenues (2019, Cureus)
2. A Systematic Review on Pulmonary Complications Secondary to Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (2022, Cureus)
3. The Outcome of Electrical Cardioversion in Hyperthyroid Induced Atrial Fibrillation (2023, Cureus)
4. The Efficacy of Probiotics in the Management of Helicobacter Pylori: A Systematic Review (2021, Cureus)
5. Live Bacteria Supplementation as Probiotic for Managing Fishy, Odorous Vaginal Discharge Disease of Bacterial Vaginosis: An Alternative Treatment Option? (2020, Cureus)
6. Meditation and Its Mental and Physical Health Benefits in 2023 (2023, Cureus)
7. Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter-2 (SGLT-2) Inhibitors: Benefits in Diabetics With Cardiovascular Disease (2020, Cureus)
8. Statins and Antidepressants: A Comprehensive Review and Clinical Outlook of the Risks and Benefits of Co-prescription (2022, Cureus)
9. Unraveling the Mysteries of Restless Leg Syndrome (2020, Cureus)
10. The Effects of Mental Stress on Non-insulin-dependent Diabetes: Determining the Relationship Between Catecholamine and Adrenergic Signals from Stress, Anxiety, and Depression on the Physiological Changes in the Pancreatic Hormone Secretion (2019, Cureus)*
    * An image from Figure 1 of this article is used in this post’s header image.
11. A Rising Hope of an Artificial Heart: Left Ventricular Assisted Device – Outcome, Convenience, and Quality of Life (2019, Cureus)
12. The Psychosocial Outcome of Conduct and Oppositional Defiant Disorder in Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (2020, Cureus)
13. A Systematic Review of Fibromyalgia and Recent Advancements in Treatment: Is Medicinal Cannabis a New Hope? (2021, Cureus)
14. Diagnostic Scores and Treatment Options for Acute Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation in Children (2021, Cureus)
15. The Association between Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy and Peripartum Cardiomyopathy (2019, Cureus)
16. Exploring the Impact of Personalized Nutritional Approaches on Metabolism and Immunity: A Systematic Review of Various Nutrients and Dietary Patterns (2024, Cureus)
17. Social Media Use and Its Connection to Mental Health: A Systematic Review (2020, Cureus)

Research Update Organization

1. Post-Hemorrhagic Hydrocephalus and Outcomes Amongst Neonates With Intraventricular Hemorrhage: A Systematic Review and Pooled Analysis (2021, Cureus)
2. Effect Comparison of E-Cigarette and Traditional Smoking and Association with Stroke—A Cross-Sectional Study of NHANES (2022, Neurology International) RETRACTED, 17 December 2025
3. E-cigarette Use and Severe Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis (2024, Cureus)
4. Comparing Simvastatin Monotherapy V/S Simvastatin-Ezetimibe Combination Therapy for the Treatment of Hyperlipidemia: A Meta-Analysis and Review (2022, Cureus)
5. Role of Probiotics in the Management of Helicobacter pylori (2022, Cureus)
6. An Analysis of Epidemiological Factors in Heart Failure Outcomes (2022, Cureus)
7. Frontliners on the Move: A Quantitative Analysis of the Prevalence of COVID-19 Reinfection Among Healthcare Workers (2022, Cureus)
8. Opportunistic Infections in COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (2022, Cureus)
9. Vitamin D: The Missing Nutrient Behind the Two Deadly Pandemics, COVID-19 and Cardiovascular Diseases (2022, Cureus)

Global Remote Research Scholars Program

1. Effect of breathing exercises on blood pressure and heart rate: A systematic review and meta-analysis (2024, International Journal of Cardiology Cardiovascular Risk and Prevention)
2. Exploring the Dorian Gray Trait: Unveiling the Complexities of Perceived Aging and Self-Image (2023, Cureus)
3. A Review of the Association of Blue Food Coloring With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms in Children (2022, Cureus)
4. Is Coffee and Tea a Threat or Ally to Cardiovascular Health? (2023, Cureus)
5. Mortality Benefit of Remdesivir in COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (2021, Frontiers in Medicine)
6. A Literature Review on Holistic Well-Being and Dopamine Fasting: An Integrated Approach (2024, Cureus)

USMLESarthi

1. WITHDRAWN: Non-Anti-TNF Biologics as Salvage Therapy for Refractory Acute Severe Ulcerative Colitis, A Systematic Review (2024, Current Reviews in Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology)
2. Bipolar Disorder in Social Media: An Examination of Instagram’s Role in Disseminating Accurate Information (2023, Cureus)

The Good Research Project

1. Gender Trends in First Authorship of Academic Publications Related to Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome (2023, Cureus)
2. Gender Equality Trends of First Authors in Publications of Artificial Intelligence and Thyroid (2023, Cureus)
3. Gender Disparities in First Authorship in Publications Related to Attention Deficit Hyperkinetic Disorder (ADHD) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) (2023, Cureus)

Meta-Analysis Academy

1. Effects of Tezepelumab on Quality of Life of Patients with Moderate-to-Severe, Uncontrolled Asthma: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (2023, Current Allergy and Asthma Reports)
2. Efficacy and safety of bexagliflozin in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: A systematic review and meta-analysis (2023, Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism)
3. Transradial versus transfemoral access in carotid artery stenting: A meta-analysis (2023, Interventional Neuroradiology)
4. Survival Impact of Combined Biguanide and Temozolomide in Glioblastoma Preclinical Models: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (2024, World Neurosurgery)
5. Machine Learning Algorithms to Predict Delayed Cerebral Ischemia After Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (2023, Neurocritical Care)

Research Academy

1. Insulin Pump Therapy vs Multiple Daily Insulin Injections for Glycemic Control in Children With Type 1 Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (2024, Cureus) RETRACTED, 19 December 2024

IMG Helping Hands

1. Early Versus Delayed Thoracic Endovascular Aortic Repair for Blunt Traumatic Aortic Injury: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (2023, Cureus)
2. Effects of Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) and Gastroprotective NSAIDs on the Gastrointestinal Tract: A Narrative Review (2023, Cureus)
3. Typical and Atypical Presentations of Appendicitis and Their Implications for Diagnosis and Treatment: A Literature Review (2023, Cureus)