Slashdot Mirror
Fake Academic Journals Are a Very Real Problem
derekmead writes "Because its become so easy to start a new publication in this new pixel-driven information economy, a new genre of predatory journals is emerging at an alarming rate. The New York Times just published an exposée of sorts on the topic. Its only an exposée of sorts because the scientific community knows about the problem. There are blogs set up to shame the fake journals into halting publishing. There are tutorials online for spotting a fake journal. There's even a list created and maintained by academic librarian Jeffrey Beall that keeps an eye on all the new fake journals coming out. When Beall started the list in 2010, it had only 20 entries. Now it has over 4,000. The journal Nature even published an entire issue on the problem a couple of weeks ago. So again, scientists know this is a problem. They just don't know how to stop it."
How do I trust YOUR 'educated friends'?
Well, I bring you over to their house and you have a play date with them. And when you're done playing dress up and house, I drive you back home. And afterwords you're best friends.
how do I break into their web of trust to find a competent journal?
I suppose the same way you find a competent anything: Ask around.
It never ceases to amaze me how seemingly intelligent people can come up with inordinately complex solutions to everyday problems... it's like guys who insist on not stopping for directions... they'll drive in circles for hours when all it would have taken was to walk into a gas station and ask where to go. Of course, how do we trust the gas station attendant? He could be handing out disinformation and fake maps...
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
What exactly is the difference between a 'fake' journal and a 'real' journal? How much you pay?
I'm the editor of the Faux Spurious Journal. We take articles on other journals. I can tell you that it is a huge problem!
A real journal has a pear reviewed articles and other academics looking at them. We cost hundreds of dollars per year - payable in BitCoins. We accept all articles - with a small fee - because of academic
Fake journals, OTOH, only accept articles when the Editor (*snicker*) likes you. THEY cost THOUSANDS of dollars a year; which is indicative of their questionable authenticity.
Sincerely,
Heywood Yablowme, Ph.D.
University of Nigeria
"Publish or parish." - Use the church as an alternative source of science funding? An intriguing idea... :-)
We're overlooking the obvious benefit to these "fake" journals: It's so much easier now to add references to our Wikipedia articles!
but the Antarctica Journal of Mathematics has such a great webpage.
Which category is this one: http://www.universalrejection.org/
Fake journals let anything and everything in, so you can pretend you have lots of papers published. Some of them pretend to be prestigious jornals: can't get published in Nature or Science? Why not Nature and Science?
That's genius. You can just casually drop at an interview, "And, of course, I've been published in Nature and Science," and sound like a total BAMF. What a brilliant scam.
Arrr, it be the infamous pirate, No Beard Pete!
A true open peer review, with weighted vote + PKI should be easy to setup. I mean, we been doing it on slashdot for years, right?
We all knew this would happen. Alas, we did it anyway.
Until the interviewer asks, "Wow, that's amazing! What did you publish in there?" And it becomes obvious that your papers aren't worth paper....
Yes, if the last 20 years have taught me anything, it's that interviewers are always well-informed on basic scientific standards, ask tough questions, and demand thorough answers.
Before anyone asks, the sky in my world is purple and simply beautiful.
"All these years believing you're the signified monkey, only to find out you're just a big hunk of nobody cares."