Why It Matters | Scams in scientific publishing

A knowledge scientist named Gunasekaran Manogaran has been accused of tarnishing the status of eminent scientific publishers like Elsevier, Springer Nature, Taylor and Francis, and Wiley.
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What is it? An e mail by a whistleblower has accused a scientist named Gunasekaran Manogaran of being an instrumental a part of a analysis paper publication rip-off and tarnishing the status of eminent scientific publishers like Elsevier, Springer Nature, Taylor and Francis and Wiley, Undarkreported. 

The author of the e-mail has alleged that the rip-off targets a particular kind of publication known as ‘special editions’, the place a selected difficulty of a scientific journal focuses on a single theme or matter. These self-contained editions will not be a part of the journal’s common publishing schedule. Typically, particular points have been used to focus on a selected matter or discover totally different avenues of present analysis. They have additionally been helpful to publishers as a income as researchers are extremely charged to get their papers revealed in these open-access points. 

Special points are usually managed by ‘guest editors’ who will not be direct staff of the publishers. Most of the time, they’re approached by the editors of the journal to curate the particular editions. Researchers also can suggest a subject for a particular version to the writer.

What is the context?

• According to Undark’s report, the e-mail alleged that the organisers of the rip-off used a web site to take bulk orders from researchers in international locations like China and Taiwan, the place researchers are underneath strain to publish an increasing number of papers.
• Then, the organisers would allegedly contact lots of of scientific journals and suggest subjects for particular editions. 
• If a journal accepted a subject, the organisers would allegedly appoint one in every of their very own members as a visitor editor. 
• This manner, in accordance with the report, the organisers had the ability to put in writing and reply to peer-reviews in addition to to quote their very own work, with none exterior scrutiny.
• This month, one other investigation known as into query the exceptionally excessive place of Saveetha Dental College, Chennai, in college rankings, and alleged that it engaged in an unethical observe known as excessive self-citation to spice up its quotation rating.

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Why does it matter?

• According to Undark, there are no less than 60 such problematic particular points which might be nonetheless on-line, and which have been edited or authored by researchers who have been related to this mill.
• The report additionally stated that analysis revealed in these journals was typically of low high quality, with questionable knowledge produced by researchers whose scientific credentials have been in query.
• These sorts of scams erode folks’s belief in science and hinder analysis into issues of public well being resembling most cancers remedy, COVID-19 vaccine and drug growth, unbiased consultants quoted by Undark stated.
• The presence of such low-quality papers in the science literature additionally lowers the latter’s high quality and reliability, they added.