image: Figure 1: A spike in high-risk articles in 2015–2017.
The percentage of “High risk” articles identified by the tool “Argos” (as of 2/17/2026) in relation to the total number of articles published in a journal during a specific year. This percentage is influenced by the journal’s publication volume, with journals publishing a larger number of articles typically having a smaller percentage. The average annual article counts for 2014–2025 for Oncotarget - 2,240 articles/year, Cancer Letters - 493 articles/year and Oncology Reports – 539 articles/year.
Credit: Copyright: © 2026 Oncotarget. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
“Scientific integrity is a crucial component of scholarly publishing.”
BUFFALO, NY – April 10, 2026 – A new editorial perspective was published in Volume 17 of Oncotarget on April 8, 2026, titled “Oncotarget: Past, Present and Future: Trends in the publishing industry.”
Authored by the Scientific Integrity Office at Oncotarget, the editorial comprehensively analyzes the journal’s evolving approach to scientific integrity. It addresses historical challenges in scholarly publishing and discusses the necessity of modern image forensics tools to meet the most rigorous standards of scientific integrity.
The Scientific Integrity Office describes how advances in digital technologies—particularly image forensics tools such as ImageTwin and analytical platforms like Argos—have transformed the ability to detect problematic data and analyze the quality of published research.
The editorial emphasizes that the lack of adequate image tools in the “pre-tools” era limited journals’ ability to detect image-related issues, underscoring the importance of recent technological advancements. It also highlights that Argos provides a good opportunity to obtain an objective picture across different journals in both the pre- and post-tools era.
Looking forward, Oncotarget advocates indexes for broader adoption of independent analytical and AI-based tools in journal evaluation. In the public interest, we also encourage open discussion of how indexes select, deselect, and reevaluate journals.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.28852
Correspondence to: Scientific Integrity Office at Oncotarget – scientificintegrityoffice@impactjournals.com
Intro video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgxvr2Q_ZPM
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Journal
Oncotarget
Method of Research
Commentary/editorial
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
Oncotarget: Past, Present and Future: Trends in the publishing industry
Article Publication Date
8-Apr-2026
COI Statement
Authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.