Publication inflation refers to the artificial increase in the number of scientific publications without a proportional increase in scientific value, driven by academic, institutional, or commercial pressures.

Publication inflation is the phenomenon by which the volume of published scientific articles grows excessively due to systemic incentives, resulting in diluted quality, redundancy, and saturation of the literature.

• “Publish or perish” academic culture
• Institutional metrics based on number of publications
• Pressure to produce CV material for grants, promotions, or rankings
• Predatory journals and low-threshold editorial pipelines
• Rise of case reports, technical notes, and minimally original content

• Academic dilution and reduction in signal-to-noise ratio
• Difficulty conducting high-quality systematic reviews
• Increased prevalence of redundant, low-impact, or anecdotal work
• Reader fatigue and distrust in scientific publishing
• Commodification of publication over discovery

• Surge in case series and technical notes without novelty
• Multiplication of micro-variants of the same study across journals
• Fragmentation of studies into “salami-sliced” publications
• Authors with dozens of articles per year, often with minor contributions

• Academic dilution
• Journal padding
• Low-impact publication
• Technical anecdote
• Editorial complacency
• Predatory publishing