The "Grubber" on a global scale
Do you remember the famous scandal with the article "The Grubber"? A similar experiment on a much larger scale was conducted in international journals. Horror-horror-horror...
Hundreds of journals with free access accepted a fake scientific article
Thus, John Bohannon from Harvard University (USA) managed to tear off the covers and discover a truly monstrous state of affairs in this area. (We thought it was bad only for us... Nothing like that!)
The journalist and scientist sent several versions of the fake article to 304 journals within ten months. The work described a simple experiment in which it was studied how much the growth of cancer cells in a test tube slows down at different concentrations of a certain substance. Several blunders were intentionally made in the text; the authors of the work were invented; the African universities in which they allegedly work also do not exist.
PLos ONE is one of those who passed the lice test with honor.Reporting on the outrage, Mr. Bohannon emphasizes in the journal Science: "Any reviewer who knows chemistry a little better than a schoolboy and is able to understand the source data would immediately notice all the shortcomings of the text.
The results of the experiments are meaningless."
The bully sent out ten articles a week to those magazines that work according to the "golden" rule: if your article is accepted for publication, you have to pay a certain amount, but it will be free for the reader, and the widest circles of interested persons will be able to get acquainted with it (in theory). Articles were accepted by 157 journals, 98 rejected. Of the 255 materials that managed to pass the editorial selection, 60% were not sent to experts for review. Out of 106 journals that do not conduct peer review, 70% accepted a fake.
The well-known online magazine PLoS ONE was the only one who warned colleagues about the strange text and rejected it two weeks after receiving the manuscript.
Meanwhile, 45% of publications included in the Index of electronic journals with free access and conducting peer review accepted the article. The founder of this registry, Lars Bjornshauge from Lund University (Sweden), who wanted the best, is plunged into deep prostration.
So, what do we have? Disgusting quality control and the failure of the "golden" open access model – that's what. In addition, the increase in the number of free web publications in developing countries is frightening. Mr. Bohannon found 29 electronic magazines that had long abandoned their websites or concealed the true geographical location of the editorial office.
Online publications with free access are not criticized for the first time. Jeffrey Bill from the University of Colorado in Denver (USA) keeps records of "predator magazines" on his web page. According to him, last year their number increased in the most indecent way and is growing to this day at a shameless pace.
Nevertheless, Paul Peters, president of the Association of Electronic Scientific Journals with Free Access (it includes 57 publications, and three of them accepted the fake at face value), believes that Mr. Bohannon missed badly, because there was no control group in his study that could be made up of subscription publications. It is possible that the quality control of the latter is in an equally deplorable state. And in general, according to Mr. Peters, the data obtained indicate the weakness of the review system rather than the failure of the "golden" model.
Of course, his organization will deal with those who accepted the article for publication, Mr. Peters stipulates. If it turns out that they have not fulfilled the relevant review requirements, they will be asked to leave the guild.
"Publication or death" – this is the principle that should be blamed for the current situation for the umpteenth time. The quality of the work of modern researchers (especially young ones) is estimated, alas, by quantity.
Prepared based on the materials of The Guardian: Hundreds of open access journals accept fake science paper.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru08.10.2013