Don't know where to start but look at the profile photo of this Matthew Benamin https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Matthew-Benjamin-5 with affiliation Master's Student at Obafemi Awolowo University...

This is NOT his photo, the photo belongs to Tom Beckley (see the enclosed files).

So one proof (among so many other signs) that this is a fake profile is that it impersonates someone else.

Update 26-08-2025: RG informed me that they remove the profile photo...THAT'S NOT ENOUGH!!!

Thank you, Rob, for your efforts to identify fake profiles. Taylor Flick has an impressive wide range of "expertise": Elementary Particle Physics, Experimental Physics, Accelerator Physics, Biological Anthropology, Archaeology, Anthropological Linguistics

Dear Rob Keller , I was absent for a day and half, while You have posted new research question on scientific misconduct. You have done a whole project! By means of analyze of certain article , You have discovered 19 fake profiles! My sincere congratulations for Your efforts. Many evidence, especially for "successful" student Taylor Flick (25,692 = Research Interest Score, 57,692 Citations, 107 is h-index)!!! 2922 authors in paper on Higgs Boson!!!

I do hope that You have reported it to ResearchGate, as we do usually.

Could we count such imposters' network as a sort of citation cartels?

Best regards.

I noticed some rather peculiarly thing. Take for example this ‘paper’ of our ‘successful student’ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/391460221_Privacy-Preserving_Authentication_Using_a_Double_Pseudonym_for_Internet_of_Vehicles/references this serves as a citation vehicle for just two papers, including:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/372816114_A_diversified_context-based_privacy-preserving_scheme_DCP2S_for_internet_of_vehicles/citations

however, this paper is cited (all with the same two references…) by numerous (again) most likely fake profiles, take for example

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Charlotte-Smith-137 with this ‘paper’

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/392524930_A_Diversified_Context-Based_Privacy-Preserving_Scheme_DCP2S_for_Internet_of_Vehicles

same is true for the following profiles

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Grace-Whiteney Update 12-09-2025: Is now changed in Anwen Claire Whitmore https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anwen-Whitmore

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Grace-Turnner

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nathaniel-Williams-19

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nathaniel-Blessing *

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marvellous-Emmanuel-2

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Machi-Eunice

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stephen-Ray-7

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kareem-Lawal-2

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Felix-Chad *

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Matthew-Benjamin-5 *

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Beauden-John *

(Marked with an asterisk are like our Taylor Flick already identified in the other pool of fake profiles)

When time I will have to dive into this somewhat more, but my preliminary conclusion is that there is most likely some sort of “citation booster service” behind all this that sell citations (that ultimately appear in Google Scholar). For this purpose, they create fake profiles and fake AI generated ‘papers’ and abuse the way too tolerant publication acceptance of RG.

An operation as described a bit here https://technicaeditorial.com/cash-for-citations-the-newest-scam-in-scholarly-publishing/

PS. So an imposter can use:

-A publication writing ‘service’ that create publications in hijacked journals (that superficially looks legit)

-Hire a paper mill ‘company’ to gather a bunch of authors to cover the costs

-Hire a citation boost company

This way it looks like one has an impressive number of papers with an equally impressive looking number of citations (at least here on RG and in Google Scholar). Again not 100% sure for the moment that is what is going here but it certainly looks that way…

Solution: If indeed all these fake profiles are created by some fraudulent company then a company like RG should have the IT expertise to figure out the IP address or server by which all these fake profiles are created (and remove not only the profiles but also the fake papers. Otherwise the database continues to be polluted by these fake papers and citations).

Like the previous list of fake profiles it is hard to know where to start but one thing is clear:

Of course the profile of https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Grace-Whiteney is fake. The photo is stolen and belongs to Harry Fenn (see enclosed file)

https://www.thekingscandlesticks.com/webs/ancestors/fenn/index.html

Dear Rob Keller , you are very dedicated to this problem. That inspires me, I would like to see much more people engage in this fight for science. I have not received feedback from ResearchGate for the submitted profile, I hope I will! So much effort, work and dedication in the fight against scientific misconduct!

I am afraid that, if RG does not get serious, it will erode its already damaged reputation. I remembered Don Quixote and Sancho again...

Regards and respects

Dear Ljubomir Jacić Looking at the way RG is (not) handling this phenomenon, the phrase "Fighting coordinated publication fraud is like ‘emptying an overflowing bathtub with a spoon,’ study coauthor says" cross my mind as well...

https://retractionwatch.com/2025/08/04/fighting-coordinated-publication-fraud-is-like-emptying-an-overflowing-bathtub-with-a-spoon-study-coauthor-says/

Just the next one in the list that proves to be fake

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Felix-Chad

this is not Felix Chad (if even existing) but Vasile Musteata

https://www.eventscribe.net/2022/program/fsPopup.asp?efp=TUZOTFdCREsxNjMzMw&PresenterID=1334609&rnd=0.8343964&mode=presenterinfo

Yet another example that indeed all listed links of profiles are fake. This

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Britney-Johnson-Mary is not Britney Johnson Mary but MICHELE GIELLA

see also

https://rocketreach.co/michele-giella-email_17701385 and

https://theorg.com/org/aquent-llc/org-chart/michele-giella

Another example in this "never-ending story". https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stephen-Ray-7 This (the profile photo) is NOT Stephen Ray but Stephen Nowak https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-nowak-phd-b047b8138

Furthermore the following papers are NOT authored by this fake profile:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/22392758_Sero-survey_of_diphtheria_and_tetanus_antitoxin

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/18948390_Studies_on_freeze_dried_smallpox_vaccine_as_a_source_of_antigen_in_the_precipitation_in_gel_test

Dear Rob Keller , the list of fake profiles and misconduct seems to be endless. Thanks for fine examples. ResearchGate did not act yet!?

Dear Ljubomir Jacić Nope. As indicated they removed the photo in the profile of https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Matthew-Benjamin-5 (and removed one paper which was not authored by this imposter/fake profile). But the rest of the almost 400 AI generated papers are 'untouched' and apparently no reason to remove this profile...

Best regards.

PS. Received, as happened (too) often, no response to my reports on some other profiles like https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Felix-Chad and they did not even removed the papers obviously not authored by the other imposter https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Taylor-Flick (despite the evidence I provided...)

Yet another I reported (the other ones render… (still) no action by RG).

This is NOT Charlotte Smith https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Charlotte-Smith-137 but Charlotte Moss https://www.linkedin.com/posts/charlotteellenmoss_it-was-fantastic-to-be-part-of-the-patient-activity-7204766483254554624-R7vm

Like so many of these fake profiles, there are papers listed that are not authored by that (fake) person, see

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/376700741_5_An_audit_of_HIV_testing_in_patients_with_Streptococcal_bacteraemia_at_a_tertiary_care_teaching_hospital

and compare author info here

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590170223000584?via%3Dihub

Interesting observation: the fake profile I discussed 17th of August here with link https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Grace-Whiteney (where the photo was stolen and belonged to Harry Fenn) is now (12-09-2025) changed in Anwen Claire Whitmore https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anwen-Whitmore and is (of course) again fake. This photo belongs to Kimberley Grabas https://ca.linkedin.com/in/kimberleygrabas?trk=people-guest_people_search-card