For decades, publishing a paper in Nature was regarded as the ultimate academic achievement in China – a fast track to promotions, research grants, hospital appointments and elite national talent programmes.

Over the past two months, Chinese social media platforms have been flooded with accusations targeting papers published in Nature and its subsidiaries, including Nature Cancer, Nature Cell Biology and Nature Nanotechnology. Several of the accused authors are prominent professors, deans, “national talent” scholars and scientists with top state honours.

The South China Morning Post has contacted Springer Nature about the allegations and its operations in Greater China.

The accusations have rapidly escalated from isolated claims into a broader challenge to the credibility of elite scientific journals themselves.