[keiths-list] $50-million fine for predatory publisher that swallowed up Canadian science journals | Ottawa Citizen

  • From: Darryl McMahon <darryl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: keiths-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2019 07:52:49 -0400

https://ottawacitizen.com/technology/science/50-million-fine-for-predatory-publisher-that-swallowed-up-canadian-science-journals

[Fake science, real news.]

$50-million fine for predatory publisher that swallowed up Canadian science journals

Tom Spears      

Updated: April 4, 2019

A judge in Nevada has fined the world’s biggest publisher of fake science journals more than $50 million, quoting evidence from this newspaper that helped demonstrate the publisher’s deceptive practices.

Omics International, based in India, operates more than 700 science journals. In recent years, it has bought up two reputable science Canadian publishers — Pulsus Group and Andrew John Publishing — and converted them to companies that will publishing anything for cash.

It tried to buy Canadian Science Publishing of Ottawa as well.

Omics claims to publish only research papers that pass peer review, or a quality check by experts in their field.

But this newspaper has shown otherwise, by submitting papers that are scientifically nonsensical which Omics published anyway. Twice. It also invited a reporter to a science conference to give a lecture on flying pigs.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission charged Omics with deceptive trade practices, and last week Chief Judge Gloria M. Navarro of the U.S. District Court in Nevada made a sweeping order against Omics.

The company is ordered to pay a fine of US $50,130,810. It is also ordered to be honest with scientists, stop distributing scientists’ personal information and social security numbers, and stop misrepresenting the true nature of the journals. It must also stop misrepresenting the 3,000 conferences it holds each year, which are small gatherings of people in unrelated fields who are charged high fees to attend.

Omics had told the court that in fact it was doing rigorous scientific work, including peer review.

The judge didn’t agree, and she drew partly on this newspaper’s experience.

“In 2012, John Bohannon — a scientist and writer for Science magazine —submitted two articles to Defendants’ journals with intentionally ‘egregious’ scientific flaws,” she wrote. “Defendants’ journals accepted the flawed papers without any substantive comments or review. Similarly, in 2016, a journalist for the Ottawa Citizen submitted an ‘unintelligible’ article containing ungrammatical sentences and invented words. Defendants’ journal published the article without any edits and without contacting the author prior to publication.

“After reviewing these cases, the FTC’s expert Joyce Backus concluded that the papers were not subjected to peer review ‘as that term is understood in the academic publishing industry.’”

The judge concluded: “The uncontroverted evidence in the record therefore demonstrates that Defendants have made numerous express and material misrepresentations regarding their journal publishing practices.”

The order is attracting interest in science circles, where many researchers are plagued with endless demands for papers from illiterate and fraudulent publishers. Those who do publish can damage their careers through affiliation with companies that are known as fraudulent.

The Geyser, a daily newsletter dealing with academics, research and publishing, writes: “In the District of Nevada, gambling is commonplace. OMICS was gambling that it could continue to operate in a dishonest manner. Last week, it lost.”

It adds that “the summary judgment indicates OMICS’ practices were egregious enough to not require a trial. The defendants failed spectacularly in their attempt to improve OMICS’ position — in fact, the section responding to their defense is withering and fun to read.”

This newspaper reached out to Omics for comment Thursday, but did not get an immediate response.

Meanwhile, Omics continues to promote its work. It has a cluster of conferences in Toronto next week that mix unrelated topics from metallurgy to dentistry, and more in Montreal later this month. Fees range up to US $1,499.

Its website even has a welcome message from Montreal’s mayor, Valérie Plante.

--
Darryl McMahon
Freelance Project Manager (sustainable systems)
=====================================
To subscribe, unsubscribe, turn vacation mode on or off, or carry out other user-actions for this list, visit
https://www.freelists.org/list/keiths-list

Other related posts:

  • » [keiths-list] $50-million fine for predatory publisher that swallowed up Canadian science journals | Ottawa Citizen - Darryl McMahon