Launceston Skeptics

The generation of fake scientific credentials and research papers has been reported on for a few years now. There is some new research from Northwest University USA on the scale of this problem which shows it is getting worse. There are semi-criminal gangs operating 'paper mills' producing fake scientific papers, selling authorships, and manipulating journals to mass-publish fraudulent research.
How do Universities and real Research Institutions counter this problem?

Scientists warn fake research is spreading faster than real science A sweeping new study from Northwestern University reveals that scientific fraud is no longer just the work of a few rogue researchers—it has evolved into a global, organized enterprise. By analyzing massive datasets of publications, retractions, and editorial records, researchers uncovered network...

The US Health Secretary, Robert Kennedy Jnr, contradicts science and orders the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) to update its website to say that the statement 'vaccinations do not cause autism' is not evidence-based.
To see the CDC in action, watch the star-studded 2011 movie 'Contagion', made in consultation with the CDC.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/21/rfk-jr-cdc-vaccine-autism
In 2019 the measles epidemic in Samoa killed over eighty people (mostly children) was linked to Robert F Kennedy’s statements on the measles vaccine. Robert F Kennedy Jr’s anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense bolstered a local Samoan anti-vaccine movement which had emerged in response to the 2018 deaths of two children after vaccine administration errors. The anti-vaccine movement misrepresented the vaccine itself as the cause of death, leading to a significant decrease in vaccination rates.

Canada now has over 5,000 cases of measles where there were almost none in previous years. This is due to declining vaccination rates in the USA and the spead of measles there.

Robert F Kennedy Jr instructed CDC to change stance on vaccines and autism US health secretary said he told agency to update website to claim the fact vaccines do not cause autism is not evidence based

There is an inquiry into the recruitment methods and impacts of cults and organised fringe groups happening in Victoria right now. One proposition is that here be a “consumer law model” under which groups would be required to publish a statement of beliefs and their expectations of members. Members, in turn, would have protection against deceptive conduct.
Lex de Man, a former detective who investigated 'the Family' in the 1980s, put it bluntly: “Tell me the definition of religion. Tell me a definition of a cult. Some would say they would be very close.”

Australia’s cults crisis: why more people are falling prey to insidious high-control groups Inquiry hears of boom in cult activity as coercive groups promise recruits ‘simple answers to complex problems’

Beware! We are reliably informed that this SCAM health proponent is currently being advertised in Launceston health food shops and alternative lifestyle locations. Barbara ONeill has no qualifications yet provides information to vulnerable people like pregnant mothers and cancer sufferers which is dangerous and may cause death. O'Neill has been banned by health authorities from doing this but continues regardless.
Read this article for more details and how O'Neill herself has been used by other unscrupulous people for financial advantage.

A banned promoter of cancer ‘cures’ was hijacked by genAI. Now the internet is ‘flooded with garbage’ Australian Barbara O’Neill’s ‘natural self-healing’ remedies found a certain audience through her own efforts. But her image has run wild thanks to unaffiliated groups exploiting her name on social media