A common trope in fantasy and science fiction is the ancient civilization whose vast knowledge was somehow lost to the ages. The idea resonates, because whether we’re conscious of it or not, we all know that knowledge is perishable. Not only do we forget things as individuals, but societies routinely lose vast quantities of information over time. Scholars estimate that 90% of texts from antiquity are now gone, and if you’ve ever tried to access an old computer file on a floppy disk, you know that we’re still actively losing access to old data.

A new investigative report by journalists at Science and Retraction Watch lifts the lid on what appears to be a concerted effort by one university to game the current science publishing system. The story focuses on Saveetha Dental College in Chennai, India, which requires hundreds of undergraduates to write manuscripts on research they’ve done as students. That sounds like a fine exercise for the class. The twist is that these student manuscripts then get published in bottom-of-the-barrel journals.