IEEE has withdrawn 1,417 conference papers in a single batch after an external study linked them to paper mills that sell authorship. The study identified 2,062 papers in 366 IEEE conference proceedings from 2021 to 2026 whose titles matched or closely resembled papers advertised for sale on social media. Researchers documented 4,407 authorship offers across more than 200 channels, including Telegram, WhatsApp and Facebook. Prices ranged from $43 to $400 for first-author positions and $11 to $200 for last-author positions. By the time of the report, IEEE had retracted 1,622 of the 2,062 flagged papers; its notices said the papers may have been offered for sale.
The case highlights vulnerabilities in conference publishing. Of 109 IEEE-sponsored conferences with at least five papers matching the advertisements, 95 were held in India. Researchers say conference papers can be published quickly and do not receive the same integrity checks as IEEE journal submissions; local conference committees manage review, while IEEE publishes the proceedings. They argue the organization needs stronger oversight of conferences. IEEE said it reviewed the papers after the irregularities were identified and that the latest batch represented less than 0.06% of its conference publications over six years. The withdrawals form part of nearly 3,000 IEEE retractions so far in 2026, following more than 1,700 conference-paper retractions the previous year.
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