[IRTalk] Predatory journals - A threat to academic credibility

Mon May 22 11:30:33 SAST 2017

Hi Ina,

This is quite a serious problem, we all know. There used to be a project
maintained by someone in the U.S. documenting the list of predatory
publishers out there, which, if my memory serves me, was shut down due to
pressure from the university where he worked. (if someone can remember
better than me, please remind us  !)

My point is that it would be extremely useful to have an authoritative
list, perhaps reviewed biennially, published by AOSP, or AUU.  These lists
are necessarily biased, and perhaps some people may claim that they
perpetuate colonial dominance, by discrediting African journals - so some
care has to be taken in publishing a list with thorough and transparent
methods and results  (hey, what's more Open Science than that !).

Certainly, each institute can decide how to use  such lists - perhaps
augment them, contribute back, or ignore them entirely - but at least we
would have a source to refer to.

Are there any efforts underway to conduct such research and publish such
lists in an authoritative way  ?

Thanks !
Bruce

On 21 May 2017 at 19:45, Ina Smith <Ina at assaf.org.za> wrote:

>
>
> <http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20170516082327227>
>
>
>
> http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20170516082327227
>
>
>
> Predatory journals and their publishers, driven solely by profit motives,
> are posing an increasing threat to academic credibility and to individual
> reputations.
>
> “In academia today there is huge pressure to publish, and publish fast,”
> said Professor Johann Mouton, director of the Centre for Research on
> Science and Technology, or CREST, and the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in
> Scientometrics and Science, Technology and Innovation Policy at
> Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
>
> “It’s important for university rankings and research metrics. It is
> important for academic careers – you don’t get ahead if you don’t publish.
> So academics are now turning to these predatory journals.”
>
> In a recent study undertaken by CREST it was found that 40 PhD students in
> Ghana had published papers in predatory journals. “They didn’t know they
> were predatory. But it comes out later when they are up for promotion,”
> said Mouton.
>
> Developing countries in Asia and Africa are particularly at risk. In
> Nigeria and Kenya, where there is political pressure to produce PhDs and
> academic promotion depends on it, postgraduate students frequently opt to
> publish three papers rather than do a dissertation.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> The largest number of papers – 476 – were published in the *Journal of
> Social Sciences*, followed by 413 in the *African Journal of Business
> Management* and 279 in the *Journal of Human Ecology*. All three of these
> journals are produced by publishers that feature on Beall’s list of
> potential, possible or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers.
>
>
> The authors came from a broad spectrum of South African universities
> including those with high rankings. But the authors are not to blame,
> according to Mouton, as they published in good faith as some of these
> predatory journals are on the approved listings provided by the Department
> of Higher Education and Training or DHET. “You can’t blame individuals;
> they’ve done due diligence.”
>
> But that means the DHET – though they rejected many claims for publication
> subsidy – may have paid out more than R100 million (US$7.6 million) over
> the past 10 years for articles that appeared in predatory journals.
>
>
>
> *Ina Smith*
>
> Project Manager: African Open Science Platform
> <http://africanopenscience.org.za/>
> Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)
> DOAJ Ambassador, Southern Africa Region
> LIASA Librarian of the Year 2016
>
>
>
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-- 
Dr. Bruce Becker, Coordinator, South African National Grid
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6607-7145
http://www.africa-grid.org
Meraka Institute, CSIR Meiring Naude Road Pretoria 0001 South Africa
+27 12 841 3746 (w) | +27 12 841-4829 (f) | +27 84 989 6169 (m)  | + 39 392
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