What's happening?

Around the world, thousands of new papers are published every day. They include the latest research and new science. But some of them, scientists say, are totally made up.

Experts think there are groups of people who publish thousands of fake studies, sharing information that is wrong. These groups of people mostly work in IranA country in Western Asia, officially called the Islamic Republic of Iran. It has a population of 84 million. , RussiaThe largest country in the world by area. It has a population of 144 million people. and ChinaA country in East Asia, home to 1.4 billion people..

Many of them look and sound like they could be real. It is impossible to say how many people have been fooled. And nobody knows exactly how many fake papers there are - but some think it could be as high as one in every five papers.

This is a big problem, experts say. China publishes more than 20% of all papers. We do not know how much of that information is false.

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China has a difficult relationshipThe way in which two people or things are connected. with the West. But many say it is ahead in the world of science, inventing new things before other countries.

Some fear that China is choosing to spread false information so that it can stay ahead. And others claim that China could be stealing research from scientists in other countries.

Yes! It looks like China is trying to stop other countries from catching up. But this will only hold everyone back.

No! We do not know how many papers are false. It could be much fewer than we think. We should not let disagreements between the West and China shape how we think.