Editors of higher education journal coauthor editorial with fake references

In May 2026, Anastasia Christou and Steve Lambert, coeditors of Journal of Higher and Further Education (JHFE), published an opinion piece about attacks on academic freedom and social justice research. The journal’s deputy editor Rosalind Latiner Raby also coauthored the editorial.
Of 31 references in the editorial, at least nine are nonexistent articles or contain incorrect journals or inaccurate author names. The problematic references include real scholars linked to articles they didn’t write and real journal titles associated with the wrong authors. The article also has numerous citation errors in the text. Fake references can be a sign of artificial intelligence use since large language models, such as ChatGPT, are known to hallucinate references. A spokesperson for Taylor & Francis told Retraction Watch its publishing ethics and integrity team is "investigating the concerns that have been raised", but would not comment further.
Source https://retractionwatch.com/2026/09/08/editors-of-higher-education-journal-coauthor-editorial-with-fake-references/
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