Predatory journals recruit fake editor
New study on predatory journals:
Piotr Sorokowski, Emanuel Kulczycki, Agnieszka Sorokowska & Katarzyna Pisanski, "Predatory Journals Recruit Fake Editor," Nature 543 (March 2017): 481-483. doi:10.1038/543481a
"An investigation finds that dozens of academic titles offered 'Dr Fraud' — a sham, unqualified scientist — a place on their editorial board. Katarzyna Pisanski and colleagues report."
There is also a New York Times article on this study: Gina Kolata, "A Scholarly Sting Operation Shines a Light on ‘Predatory’ Journals," New York Times, March 22, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/22/science/open-access-journals.html?_r=0
1 Reply
Post ReplyPredatory journals are a serious problem for services like H-Net. Despite our editorial processes, there have been times when a less-than-reputable journal is able to post a CFP on H-Net. Not long ago, a journal called "The Historian" posted a CFP ( https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/154922/historian ). This is not actual THE Historian, but rather a fraudulent journal using the same name. A few months ago, there was also a posting for International Journal of Research and Education ( https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/123547/internationa…) . A look at its editorial board (http://onlinejournal.org.uk/index.php/ijre/about/editorialTeam ) suggests it isn't above board. Most egregious to me, the overtly predatory journal company "journals of scientifcs [sic] rd" has been able to get onto H-Net a few times ( https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/137876/call-papers-… ). Just a glance at their web page (https://jrsdjournal.wixsite.com/humanities-cultural) makes it clear this is a predatory journal - note they misspelled Holocaust, and publish in the area of "women studies and so on". A search on Google Maps shows their "office" address is an apt complex.
With the Beall list of predatory publishers gone ( https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/01/18/librarians-list-predator… ), we as a profession need to be especially active against these fraudulent journals. About a month ago, I noticed that the journals of scientifcs [sic] rd was fraudulently claiming an association with Thomson Reuters, and claiming that their journal is indexed in ERIC ( https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2016/09/29/call-for-papers-jo… ). They even displayed the Thomson Reuters logo on their journal main page. Grumpy librarian that I am, I contacted Thomson Reuters directly about this, and within a month the TR logo was removed. The moral of that story: we can crack down on these fraudulent journals by taking direct action (like contacting TR), and by refusing to post/spread their CFPs, especially here on H-Net.