[IRTalk] Predatory journals - A threat to academic credibility

Mon May 22 12:13:17 SAST 2017

Hey Ina , Denise.

Thanks for putting some clarity to my vagueness... I try to keep track of
these things, but it's really a job best done by people in the publishing
space such as yourselves.

I guess that brings up a fair point, which I was trying to emphasise before
- these predators function so well because there is no counter-narrative.
The primacy of publishing in the academic world, over other forms of
contribution and progress, maybe has something to do with this.

As long as we have the "publish-or-perish" paradigm, I fear the best we can
do is to construct the narrative of "yes, publish, but watch out for these
guys !" to accompany researchers as they go through their undergrad and
postgrad careers.

Speaking as a physicists, we never had any issue like this in my community,
because it promotes intense pre-publication peer review (indeed, physicists
are known to be pretty hardcore about ripping each other to shreds at
conferences - or maybe it's just the HEP people). Clearly this also has
down sides... but it's the strong, interconnected community that ensures
quality at the end of the day.

I really feel for the history, economics, etc researcher who feels lost in
the noise, and is constantly pressured to publish. The temptation to send
off a manuscript to whoever reaches out to you must be overwhelming at
times...

Again, I think a _blacklist_ rather than a whitelist would be the best
thing to maintain, and the methods and data used when creating that
blacklist must be public, and owned by a neutral third party, who is not
subject to blackmail or pressure such as Beall may have been.

On 22 May 2017 at 12:00, Ina Smith <Ina at assaf.org.za> wrote:

> Hi Bruce
>
>
>
> This such an important issue – I agree … Tax payers money going to these
> predators, and we should do all we can to stop this practice.
>
>
>
> The Directory of Open Access Journals <https://doaj.org/> does great work
> in terms of evaluating OA journals, and only allows high quality OA
> journals to be listed in their directory. So we encourage all African and
> South African scholarly journals to apply for inclusion in DOAJ. Would be
> great if all editors, librarians on the continent can assist with growing
> this trusted list of OA journals. After all – created by the community, for
> the community, and we should all be watch dogs.
>
>
>
> The list your refer to the Bealls List?
>
>
>
> Would be great to hear what other colleagues on the two mailing lists
> think?
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
> Ina
>
>
>
> *From:* brucellino at gmail.com [mailto:brucellino at gmail.com] *On Behalf Of *Bruce
> Becker
> *Sent:* Monday, May 22, 2017 11:31 AM
> *To:* Ina Smith <Ina at assaf.org.za>
> *Cc:* heligliasa at googlegroups.com; irtalk at lists.lib.sun.ac.za
> *Subject:* Re: [IRTalk] Predatory journals - A threat to academic
> credibility
>
>
>
> 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
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> This message is subject to the CSIR's copyright terms and conditions,
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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
622 9279
AIM/GTalk/Skype/MSN/Jabber : brucellino
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