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Fingerprints used to Screen the Scientific Literature

📚 The screener searches the entire literature for these fingerprints (see method paper).


🤷 Tortured

A tortured phrase is an established scientific concept turned into a nonsensical sequence of paraphrasing words.
Starting March 2021, we have been screening publications to identify tortured phrases and post comments on PubPeer to report problematic papers.
Other concerned PubPeer users (thanks!) have spotted new tortured phrases in health sciences and various other domains; we regularly add these ‘tortured tips’ to the Problematic Preprint Screener.

► We invite publishers to screen their incoming manuscripts against this CSV dump of fingerprints.

Report Settings

  • Row text contains 'pain'
  • 1 - 14 of 14
Fingerprint - Tortured PhraseExpected TextNb Retrieved PapersDescending
"Rheumatoid joint pain"Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA)181
"chest torment"chest pain112
"stomach torment"stomach pain108
"eye torment"ocular pain20
"intense respiratory pain disorder"acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)15
"chest torture"chest pain11
"torment administration"pain management7
"head torment"head pain / headache3
"arm desolation"arm pain3
"Affiliated Paintings"related works2
"age, coitus, casket pain"age, sex, chest pain2
"severe respirational pain disorder"acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)2
"grumbled of serious agony"complained of severe pain1
"authoritative races of Spain"Spanish general election1
  • 1 - 14 of 14

🧑‍🔬 SCIgen

These fingerprints are characteristic passages of the SCIgen grammar that we extracted manually to search for SCIgen-generated nonsensical publications.

► We invite publishers to screen their incoming manuscripts against this CSV dump of fingerprints.

  • 1 - 50 of 257
FingerprintNb Retrieved PapersDescending
"this may or may not actually hold in reality"110
"the exact opposite" AND "on this property for correct behavior"105
"Now for the climactic analysis of"102
"operator error alone cannot account for these results"86
"the curve in" AND "should look familiar; it is better known as"81
"we use our previously" AND "results as a basis for all of these assumptions"79
"the results come from only" AND "trial runs, and were not reproducible"78
"the many discontinuities in the graphs point to" AND "introduced with our hardware upgrades"77
"the question is, will" AND "satisfy all of these assumptions?"74
"the key to" AND "is closing the feedback loop;" AND "shows how" AND "does not converge otherwise"73
"Reality aside, we would like to" AND "for how" AND "might behave in theory"73
"our experiments soon proved that" AND "was more effective than" AND "them, as previous work suggested"72
"bugs in our system caused the unstable behavior throughout the experiments"72
"we scarcely anticipated how" AND "our results were in this phase of the"71
"we ran" AND" trials with a simulated" AND "workload, and compared results to our"70
"observations contrast to those seen in earlier" AND "such as" AND "seminal treatise on" AND "and observed"69
"the data in" AND "in particular, proves that four years of hard work were wasted on this project"69
"error bars have been elided, since most of our data points fell outside of" AND "standard deviations from observed means"65
"of course, all sensitive data was anonymized during our"65
"Gaussian electromagnetic disturbances in our" AND "caused unstable experimental results"64
"Suppose that there exists" AND "such that we can easily"63
"we view" AND "as following a cycle of four phases"62
"note that" AND "grows as" AND "decreases" AND "a phenomenon worth" AND "in its own right"61
"have complete control over the" AND "which of course is necessary so that"60
"we have not yet optimized for" AND "this should be simple once we finish"59
"conventional wisdom states that this" AND "by the" AND "we believe that a different" AND "is necessary"59
"a recent unpublished undergraduate dissertation" AND "a similar idea for"57
"we dogfooded" AND "on our own desktop machines, paying particular attention to"55
"these results were obtained by" AND "we reproduce them here for clarity"55
"would agree that, had it not been for" AND "might never have occurred"54
"that the" AND "of yesteryear actually exhibits better" AND "than today's hardware"52
"we discarded the results of some earlier experiments, notably when"52
"is broadly related to work in the field of" AND "but we view it from a new perspective"52
"stayed constant across successive generations of"50
"does not require such a" AND "to run correctly, but it doesn't hurt"50
"we made all of our software is available under a" AND "license"47
"a litany of" AND "work supports our use of"46
"in theory, have not until recently been considered"44
"suggested a scheme" AND "but did not fully realize the implications of" AND "at the time"44
"Building a sufficient software environment took time, but was well worth it in the end"44
"this combination of properties has not yet been"42
"Motorola bag telephone"42
"In recent years, much research has been devoted to the" AND "few have"42
"we are grateful for" AND "without them, we could not optimize for" AND "simultaneously with"42
"represents a valuable research contribution in and of itself."42
"is it possible to justify having paid little attention to our implementation and experimental setup?"41
"this concludes our discussion of software modifications."40
"We have seen one type of behavior in" AND "our other experiments \(shown in Figure" AND "\) paint a different picture"39
"as we will soon see, the goals of this section are manifold."39
"all of these techniques are of interesting historical significance;"37
  • 1 - 50 of 257

🧑‍🏫 Mathgen

These fingerprints are characteristic passages of the Mathgen grammar that we extracted manually to search for Mathgen-generated nonsensical publications.

► We invite publishers to screen their incoming manuscripts against this CSV dump of fingerprints.

  • 1 - 50 of 5,737
FingerprintNb Retrieved PapersDescending
"it is well known that" AND "it is not yet known whether" AND "a central problem in"46
"was a milestone in" AND "recently, there has been much interest in the" AND "have raised the question of whether"45
"recently, there has been much interest in the" AND "have raised the question of whether" AND "every student is aware that"44
"was a milestone in" AND "the main result was the" AND "have raised the question of whether"44
"was a milestone in" AND "recently, there has been much interest in the" AND "every student is aware that"44
"was a milestone in" AND "have raised the question of whether" AND "every student is aware that"44
"under the additional assumption that" AND "it is well known that" AND "it has long been known that"43
"was a milestone in" AND "have raised the question of whether" AND "a central problem in"43
"the groundbreaking work of" AND "it is well known that" AND "a central problem in"43
"was a milestone in" AND "the main result was the" AND "recently, there has been much interest in the"43
"the main result was the" AND "recently, there has been much interest in the" AND "have raised the question of whether"43
"who first asked whether" AND "was a milestone in" AND "recently, there has been much interest in the"42
"under the additional assumption that" AND "recently, there has been much interest in the" AND "have raised the question of whether"42
"recently, there has been much interest in the" AND "every student is aware that" AND "a central problem in"42
"the main result was the" AND "recently, there has been much interest in the" AND "every student is aware that"42
"was a milestone in" AND "under the additional assumption that" AND "have raised the question of whether"42
"was a milestone in" AND "recently, there has been much interest in the" AND "a central problem in"42
"was a major advance." AND "the groundbreaking work of" AND "recently, there has been much interest in the"42
"recently, there has been much interest in the" AND "have raised the question of whether" AND "a central problem in"42
"it is well known that" AND "it has long been known that" AND "a central problem in"42
"have raised the question of whether" AND "every student is aware that" AND "a central problem in"42
"was a milestone in" AND "the main result was the" AND "every student is aware that"42
"the main result was the" AND "have raised the question of whether" AND "every student is aware that"42
"who first asked whether" AND "was a milestone in" AND "have raised the question of whether"42
"was a milestone in" AND "every student is aware that" AND "a central problem in"42
"who first asked whether" AND "recently, there has been much interest in the" AND "have raised the question of whether"42
"we wish to extend the results of" AND "was a milestone in" AND "have raised the question of whether"42
"was a milestone in" AND "the groundbreaking work of" AND "have raised the question of whether"42
"was a milestone in" AND "unfortunately, we cannot assume that" AND "have raised the question of whether"42
"was a milestone in" AND "in future work, we plan to address questions of" AND "have raised the question of whether"42
"was a milestone in" AND "under the additional assumption that" AND "recently, there has been much interest in the"42
"who first asked whether" AND "have raised the question of whether" AND "every student is aware that"41
"under the additional assumption that" AND "recently, there has been much interest in the" AND "every student is aware that"41
"was a milestone in" AND "recently, there has been much interest in the" AND "a useful survey of the subject can be found in"41
"the main result was the" AND "have raised the question of whether" AND "a central problem in"41
"recently, there has been much interest in the" AND "have raised the question of whether" AND "a useful survey of the subject can be found in"41
"the groundbreaking work of" AND "recently, there has been much interest in the" AND "have raised the question of whether"41
"was a milestone in" AND "unfortunately, we cannot assume that" AND "every student is aware that"41
"was a milestone in" AND "every student is aware that" AND "a useful survey of the subject can be found in"41
"who first asked whether" AND "was a milestone in" AND "a central problem in"41
"recently, there has been much interest in the" AND "in future work, we plan to address questions of" AND "have raised the question of whether"41
"it is not yet known whether" AND "have raised the question of whether" AND "a central problem in"41
"we wish to extend the results of" AND "was a milestone in" AND "the main result was the"41
"was a milestone in" AND "unfortunately, we cannot assume that" AND "a central problem in"41
"was a milestone in" AND "the groundbreaking work of" AND "recently, there has been much interest in the"41
"we wish to extend the results of" AND "have raised the question of whether" AND "a central problem in"41
"we wish to extend the results of" AND "the main result was the" AND "have raised the question of whether"41
"we wish to extend the results of" AND "was a milestone in" AND "recently, there has been much interest in the"41
"was a milestone in" AND "under the additional assumption that" AND "every student is aware that"41
"was a milestone in" AND "it is not yet known whether" AND "a central problem in"41
  • 1 - 50 of 5,737

💰 SBIR

These fingerprints are characteristic passages produced by the Automatic SBIR Proposal Generator that we collected manually to search for SBIR-generated nonsensical publications.

► We invite publishers to screen their incoming manuscripts against this CSV dump of fingerprints.

  • 1 - 50 of 500
FingerprintNb Retrieved PapersDescending
"IN TURN OFFERS THE POTENTIAL FOR DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENTS"4
"THIS IN TURN OFFERS THE POTENTIAL FOR DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENTS IN"4
"THIS IN TURN OFFERS THE POTENTIAL FOR DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENTS"4
"TURN OFFERS THE POTENTIAL FOR DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENTS"4
"IN TURN OFFERS THE POTENTIAL FOR DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENTS IN"4
"TURN OFFERS THE POTENTIAL FOR DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENTS IN"4
"DEVELOPMENT OF THIS TECHNOLOGY AFTER SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF PHASE II"3
"THIS TECHNOLOGY AFTER SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF PHASE II WE"3
"ACCRUE FROM SO SIMPLE AN INVESTMENT WITH THIS POTENTIALLY VAST"3
"THE DEVELOPMENT OF THIS TECHNOLOGY AFTER SUCCESSFUL"3
"THE FIRST STEP IS TAKEN THE ADVANTAGES OF DEVELOPING"3
"THIS TECHNOLOGY AFTER SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF PHASE"3
"THE DEVELOPMENT OF THIS TECHNOLOGY AFTER SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF"3
"SIMPLE AN INVESTMENT WITH THIS POTENTIALLY VAST MARKET FOR"3
"DEVELOP AND FIELD SYSTEMS WITH THESE AND EVEN GREATER"3
"AND FIELD SYSTEMS WITH THESE AND EVEN GREATER CAPABILITIES"3
"PHASE II SELDOM DOES SO GREAT A BENEFIT ACCRUE FROM"3
"IS COMMITTED TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THIS TECHNOLOGY AFTER SUCCESSFUL"3
"ACCRUE FROM SO SIMPLE AN INVESTMENT WITH THIS POTENTIALLY"3
"IS COMMITTED TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THIS TECHNOLOGY AFTER"3
"GREAT A BENEFIT ACCRUE FROM SO SIMPLE AN INVESTMENT"3
"SO SIMPLE AN INVESTMENT WITH THIS POTENTIALLY VAST MARKET FOR"3
"DEVELOPMENT OF THIS TECHNOLOGY AFTER SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF"3
"THE DEVELOPMENT OF THIS TECHNOLOGY AFTER SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION"3
"COMPLETED IN PHASE II SELDOM DOES SO GREAT A BENEFIT"3
"OF THIS TECHNOLOGY AFTER SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF PHASE II"3
"GREAT A BENEFIT ACCRUE FROM SO SIMPLE AN INVESTMENT WITH"3
"TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THIS TECHNOLOGY AFTER SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION"3
"CONTINUE TO DEVELOP AND FIELD SYSTEMS WITH THESE AND EVEN"3
"DEVELOPMENT OF THIS TECHNOLOGY AFTER SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION"3
"OF THIS TECHNOLOGY AFTER SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF PHASE II WE"3
"COMMITTED TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THIS TECHNOLOGY AFTER"3
"AFTER SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF PHASE II WE WILL CONTINUE TO"3
"A BENEFIT ACCRUE FROM SO SIMPLE AN INVESTMENT WITH THIS"3
"ONCE THE FIRST STEP IS TAKEN THE ADVANTAGES OF DEVELOPING"3
"TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THIS TECHNOLOGY AFTER SUCCESSFUL"3
"II WE WILL CONTINUE TO DEVELOP AND FIELD SYSTEMS WITH"3
"TO DEVELOP AND FIELD SYSTEMS WITH THESE AND EVEN GREATER"3
"WILL CONTINUE TO DEVELOP AND FIELD SYSTEMS WITH THESE"3
"COMPLETION OF PHASE II WE WILL CONTINUE TO DEVELOP AND"3
"THIS TECHNOLOGY AFTER SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF PHASE II"3
"PHASE II WE WILL CONTINUE TO DEVELOP AND FIELD SYSTEMS"3
"SIMPLE AN INVESTMENT WITH THIS POTENTIALLY VAST MARKET"3
"OF THIS TECHNOLOGY AFTER SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF PHASE"3
"WILL CONTINUE TO DEVELOP AND FIELD SYSTEMS WITH THESE AND"3
"SO GREAT A BENEFIT ACCRUE FROM SO SIMPLE AN INVESTMENT"3
"FROM SO SIMPLE AN INVESTMENT WITH THIS POTENTIALLY VAST"3
"AN INVESTMENT WITH THIS POTENTIALLY VAST MARKET FOR"3
"SELDOM DOES SO GREAT A BENEFIT ACCRUE FROM SO SIMPLE"3
"DEVELOP AND FIELD SYSTEMS WITH THESE AND EVEN GREATER CAPABILITIES"3
  • 1 - 50 of 500

🦹 Dada Engine

These fingerprints are characteristic passages of the Data-POstMOodernism grammar that we extracted manually to search for POMO-generated nonsensical publications.

► We invite publishers to screen their incoming manuscripts against this CSV dump of fingerprints.

  • 1 - 49 of 49
FingerprintNb Retrieved PapersDescending
"the Great White Brotherhood"89
"The cosmic joke"50
"Baudrillardist"4
"Sontagist"3
"Batailleist"1
"Lyotardist"1
"cancer and I'll pork it before it porks me\!"0
"I'm a fission reactor, I fart plutonium, power plants are fueled by the"0
"bend my genes and whittle my DNA with the sheer force of my mightyAll human history was part of a struggle between"0
"Yes, I'm a rip-snorter, I cram coca leaves right into my"0
"the Secret Underground World Society"0
"evolves until it is manipulated by the Con and can alter your soul so that you are yetFoucaultist"0
"So step aside, all you butt-lipped, neurotic, insecure bespectacled"0
"Yes, I can drink more wine and stay soberer than all the"0
"in the bowels of the Aesir"0
"They say a godzillion is the highest number there is. Well by God\! I count to a godzillion"0
"a predominant concept is the concept ofThe unspeakable PeE-Gospel"0
"and never in my days have I spoken other than\! For my every utterance is a lie, including this very one you hear\!"0
"the last remaining Homo Correctus"0
"of a million False Prophets"0
"wilts the Tree of Life, I left my"0
"evolves until it is manipulated by the Con and can alter your soul so that you are yet"0
"masquerading as a manifestation of sexhurt"0
"thenceforth probably to be eaten by rats in Hell"0
"to die, I'm insured for acts o' God"0
"Any fragments of the Truth"0
"personal saviors, I change 'em every hour, I don't give a fuck if there's life after death, I want to know if there's even any"0
"Even in the belly of the Thunderbird I've been casting out the"0
"wielded by Nhee Ghee"0
"When the Rapture comes, I'll make 'em wait\!"0
"examined and exorcised from this so-called"0
"I see the future and the past in comic books and wine bottles"0
"the bigfooted devil of Level 14"0
"I'll drive a mile so as not to walk a foot; I am"0
"fucks that which can be, figuratively,"0
"Any Xist intervention with the Conspiracy"0
"The mind-blasting prophecy"0
"I kidnapped the future and ransomed it for the past, I made"0
"I'm a bacteriological weapon, I am"0
"My droppings bore through the earth and erupt"0
"give me wide berth; when I drop my drawers"0
"Bladed Windbreaker; the wheels that turn are behind me; I think"0
"Every night I hock up a lunger and extinguish the"0
"I'm so ugly the Speed of Light can't slow me down and Gravity won't tug at my cuffs\!"0
"changed the Great Pyramid's heightPlutonium Atom Totality"0
"I am a Thuggee, I am feared in the Tongs, I have the Evil"0
"The demonic UFO fleet"0
"known to Emergentiles and Rewardians alike"0
"with my teeth and make 'em leave a tip; I change tires with my"0
  • 1 - 49 of 49

🕵️ Suspect

These fingerprints are characteristic passages of problematic papers, in our experience. The more fingerprints found, the more problematic a paper is likely to be.

► We invite publishers to screen their incoming manuscripts against this CSV dump of fingerprints.

  • 1 - 50 of 359
FingerprintExpected TextNb Retrieved Papers
"No data was used for the research described in the article"Contributed by Indigofera tanganyikensis49,948
"principle component analysis (PCA)"A typo: principal component analysis (PCA)49,887
"Fischer's exact"A typo: \"Fisher's exact\"49,550
"statically significant"A typo: statistically significant39,407
"mother nature"Unexpected phrase, see #creatorgate https://twitter.com/search?q=%23creatorgate&src=typed_query&f=top32,083
"Research data are not shared"Contributed by Indigofera tanganyikensis31,413
"reserach"A typo: research23,414
"confident interval"A typo: confidence interval17,621
"guassian"A typo: Gaussian17,561
"prevalance"A typo: prevalence17,323
"Error\! Reference source not found."Most likely an error related to Microsoft Word. How come it survived proofreading by the coauthors, editors, referees, copy editors, and typesetters14,788
"randomised controlled trail"A typo: randomised controlled trial13,017
"JOEL JSM"A typo: should be JEOL JSM, see https://www.jeol.com/products/scientific/sem/7,130
"nutrient A" AND "vitamin"vitamin A7,031
"be that as it" AND "notwithstanding" AND "be that as it notwithstanding"~100-6,040
"under the background of big data"Contributed by Nick Wise5,859
"enormous information"big data4,589
"clinican"A typo: clinician4,569
"casual inference"A typo: causal inference4,112
"COIVD-19"a typo3,476
"fluffy" AND "fuzzy"fuzzy (logics)3,450
"Here are some common"Standard reply of an LLM2,999
"pubic health"A typo: public health2,706
"European distance"Euclidian distance (see https://pubpeer.com/publications/6E5F2772838B77C083F8D1A88DA955#6)2,700
"along these lines" AND "be that as it" AND "along these lines be that as it"~100-2,235
"based on VR technology"Contributed by Nick Wise2,014
"Vickers" AND "Animal Communication: When I’m Calling You, Will You Answer Too?"Most citing papers do not cite (Vickers, 2007) adequately, see https://pubpeer.com/publications/2AB56900C7E93CBE449EF4A3897A0C#21,786
"\!\!\! INVALID CITATION \!\!\!"Most likely an Endnote-related error. How come it survived proofreading by the coauthors, editors, referees, copy editors, and typesetters1,755
"be that as it" AND "then again" AND "be that as it then again"~100-1,754
"X-beam" AND "X-ray"X-ray1,617
"It should provide a concise and precise description of the experimental results, their interpretation as well as the experimental conclusions that can be drawn."Passage from MDPI template https://www.mdpi.com/authors1,539
"weight slope"pressure gradient1,519
"along these lines" AND "notwithstanding" AND "along these lines notwithstanding"~100-1,435
"be that as it" AND "on the off chance" AND "be that as it on the off chance"~100-1,264
"nutrient B" AND "vitamin"vitamin B992
"immense information"big data986
"by and by" AND "notwithstanding" AND "by and by notwithstanding"~100-978
"notwithstanding" AND "then again" AND "notwithstanding then again"~100-965
"Error\! Hyperlink reference not valid"Inspired by https://pubpeer.com/publications/6BD72A512D3F952846A4029781CD2F909
"florescent microscope"fluorescence microscope907
"as of late" AND "at long last"-880
"nutrient C" AND "vitamin"vitamin C853
"Keller-Segel-Navier-Stokes"A sign of paper mill products, see https://pubpeer.com/publications/387FBED8841B5BE78D434922210C71#4774
"uproarious" AND "tree"???754
"risk ration"A typo: risk ratio718
"The findings and their implications should be discussed in the broadest context possible."Passage from MDPI template https://www.mdpi.com/authors690
"florescent microscopy"fluorescence microscopy684
"Ming's distance"Minkowski distance672
"aneurysm cells"There is no aneurysm cell-line, see https://pubpeer.com/publications/342CB076E39C19DB51490129DE5B2F655
"in like way"in the same way625
  • 1 - 50 of 359

🧟 Citejacked

These fingerprints are names of hijacked papers that appear in the reference section of problematic papers.

► We invite publishers to screen their incoming manuscripts against this CSV dump of fingerprints.

  • 1 - 39 of 39
FingerprintNb Retrieved PapersComment
"Turkish Journal of Computer and Mathematics Education" OR "TURCOMAT"3,518-
"International Journal of Advanced Science and Technology"3,315-
"Ion Exchange and Adsorption"1,906-
"Sylwan"1,608-
"Journal of Southwest Jiaotong University"1,375-
"Transylvanian Review"1,237-
"Arctic Journal"1,221-
"PalArch's Journal of Archaeology of Egypt/Egyptology"1,088-
"Journal of Northeastern University"957-
"Annals of the Romanian Society for Cell Biology"922-
"Linguistica Antverpiensia"883-
"Hunan Daxue Xuebao" OR "Journal of Hunan University Natural Sciences"828-
"Boreal Environment Research"734-
"Test Engineering and Management"668-
"Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems"667-
"International Journal of Control and Automation"641-
"Jundishapur Journal of Microbiology"560-
"Annals of Forest Research"366-
"Turkish Journal of Psychology"305-
"Entomologist's Gazette"239-
"Journal of Optoelectronics Laser"222-
"Journal of Natural Remedies"221-
"Technology Reports of Kansai University"219-
"Journal of Data Acquisition and Processing"202-
"Turkish Journal of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation"193-
"Ciencia e Tecnica Vitivinicola"186-
"Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera"182-
"Seybold Report"149-
"Journal of clinical otorhinolaryngology, head, and neck surgery"147-
"Journal of Talent Development and Excellence"121-
"Wulfenia journal"86-
"Hong Kong journal of Social Sciences"85-
"Jökull journal"74-
"Communications on Stochastic Analysis"71-
"Wutan Huatan Jisuan Jishu"63-
"Baltic Journal of Law and Politics"30-
"La Prensa Medica Argentina"25-
"Interciencia Journal"12-
"Sapporo Medical Journal"9-
  • 1 - 39 of 39
2025.06.09
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