New signal spots risky email domains

We’re pleased to announce our newest signal — risky email domains. 

This signal is designed to help publishers further reduce research integrity risks and protect the quality of the scholarly record by identifying a subtle issue related to author identity and manuscript provenance.

When a manuscript is uploaded to Signals, it extracts the authors’ email addresses and checks them against a curated list of risky domains. Users are then shown which authors’ emails are risky and why, so they can take action quickly.

The signal flags three types of risky emails:

Disposable email addresses: These can make it impossible to contact the authors, and raises concerns about their identity.

Problematic domains: This includes domains that are linked to papermills or domains created to mislead editors by mimicking institutional domains.

Free email addresses: Services such as Gmail or 126.com make it more difficult to verify an author’s identity. While institutional emails are preferred, we recognise that in many regions,  including India and China,  they are not widely available. These emails are flagged for transparency but do not affect a manuscript’s overall evaluation.

By testing this new signal on manuscripts that have previously flowed through Signals Manuscript Checks, we’re already seeing its impact. In many cases, articles already evaluated as ‘Alert’ now include this signal, providing additional evidence of integrity issues and making Signals evaluations more actionable for editorial and integrity teams. It’s also helping to uncover problematic manuscripts that would otherwise have gone undetected.

Following a successful trial, the risky email domain signal is now available to all publishers using Signals Premium Manuscript Checks, via both ScholarOne integration and Direct Upload. 

We also invite our publisher partners to contribute to the development of this signal by sharing their lists of risky domains. By collaborating on these challenges, we can improve integrity across the publishing community.