Affiliation Alchemists - Part 1: The Citation Cartel and the Saudi Millions

Step inside the high-stakes, hyper-competitive world of global academia, where a single imperative rules: publish or perish. In Part 1 of The Affiliation Alchemists, we uncover a staggering web of scientific vanity, state-sponsored prestige laundering, and metric manipulation. Follow the rise and dramatic fall of Dr. Rafael Luque, a Spanish chemist whose impossible publishing velocity and secret primary-affiliation swaps exposed how universities game the global ranking systems for millions of dollars. From secret bank transfers and Saudi recruitment drives to paper mills and tortured phrases, discover how artificial metrics built an academic empire—and how quickly it began to crumble.