by Greg Mayer

Jerry has written several times about “predatory journals“, and in the New York Times today comes news that the Federal Trade Commission has won a $50 million judgement against Omics International, an Indian company which is a major purveyor of said journals.

These allegedly scientific journals have little or no review process, and charge authors high fees– you can publish anything, as long as you’re willing to pay! Another characteristic of these so-called journals are badly written emailed appeals to just about anyone to submit papers, and even be an editor for the journal. These appeals– both Jerry and I get them– often come from journals having no relationship to the expertise of the recipient. The following is typical; note the non-idiomatic English, and the wholly inappropriate subject matter:

Dear Jerry A Coyne,

Christmas Greetings from – Annals of Thyroid Research and Endocrinology!! 

On the behalf of our Editorial office, we take privilege to inform you that we are in the process of releasing a Christmas issue by the month of December, as we are releasing an Issue for a special occasion we would like to invite you to contribute your valuable articles towards our journal.

We hope that your contribution towards our journal would help to increase the quality of our journal and would help the scientific community to the next level.

We are expecting your quick response.

With Gratitude,

James Williams
Editorial Board Assistant
thyroid@publicationweb.net

The Times article has some delicious details: summary judgment was granted because, “there are no material facts in dispute that warrant a trial”; some journals have legitimate people listed as editors who are not aware they are editors; and fake people can also be editors! Do read the whole piece.

Colleagues who have traveled to India have told me that their Indian colleagues are under great pressure to publish, and these journals may be an attempt to illegitimately satisfy and profit from those pressures. The journals are receiving pushback from scientists, libraries, and now the U.S. government. It remains to be seen, however, how successful this will be.