---
title: One in 277 Medical Papers Now Cites Research That Does Not Exist
description: An audit of 2.5 million biomedical papers found fabricated citations rising twelvefold since 2023, with 98.4% of affected papers uncorrected.
author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-07-27T17:22:32.126Z
updated: 2026-07-27T17:22:32.135Z
canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/fabricated-citations-biomedical-papers-audit
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/fabricated-citations-research-papers-54941.webp
categories: Science & Tech
content_type: News
region: Global
publication: Sovereign Magazine
access: members
schema_type: Article
---

In the first weeks of 2026, one in every 277 biomedical papers indexed in PubMed cited a study that does not exist. In 2023 the rate was one in 2,828. In 2025 it was one in 458.

The figures come from [an audit of 2.5 million papers](https://www.nursing.columbia.edu/news/nearly-3-000-peer-reviewed-medical-papers-have-fake-citations-columbia-nursing-ai-assisted-audit-finds) led by Maxim Topaz, an associate professor at Columbia University's School of Nursing and its Data Science Institute, published in The Lancet on May 7. Topaz and four colleagues verified 97.1 million references and found fabricated ones in 2,810 papers.

The fakes do not stay put. Topaz said one paper his team reviewed carried 18 fabricated references out of 30, and that some of those citations are already being cited by other researchers and now appear in systematic reviews, the documents that clinical guidelines are built from.

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