Hi Patrick,
I agree that this is a difficult issue . Almost everyone involved in
editing/reviewing a scientific journal today is aware of this problem, but what
steps are we taking to reduce this?
I am requesting all Chief Editors of Scientific journals in GIS to share data
for the last three years . Even if for any reason they are not able to disclose
details of individual papers , they can atleast share the summary statistics of
dubious submissions they received. Only once we know the true scale of the
problem, then we can plan effective steps to rectify this. One journal or
organisation alone cannot do anything meaningful to solve this. It needs the
joint working of everyone. There will be lot of pressure from vested interests
, but I am requesting all colleagues to not bow to any pressures.
First, it is important that GIS scientific and professional organisations take
strong moral stand against taking sponsorship for scholarly publications from
all GIS vendors . Independent peer review system is the fundamental aspect of
science. So I am humbly requesting all Scientific organisations to not use
any GIS vendor controlled press for publishing scholarly outputs (edited books
etc) .
Science is not a commodity to be marketed or sold by any vendor owners! I am
very sad and disappointed to see this degrading of science happening.
Scientific organisations should not endorse any specific vendor products etc as
“Science” and take strong moral stand against marketing of products as
“Science’ by any vendor owners!
As Educators and Scientists , I believe we cannot sit silently. Because if we
turn a blind eye on this issue, it will affect the GIS discipline’s
credibility for the future.
Independent peer review is the fundamental aspect of science and we need to
ensure all steps to protect this.
Best wishes,
Suchith
From: Patrick Hogan
Sent: 18 July 2018 18:28
To: Suchith Anand; discuss@lists.osgeo.org
Subject: RE: [OSGeo-Discuss] Journal editors - please share summary statistics
Suchith,
I for one dearly appreciate the sentiment and intent of your carefully
expressed concerns. This issue needs to be identified and described as you are
doing so well!
We need this discussion to be qualitative, yet examples of the good, the bad
and the ugly will certainly help to guide that discussion. And I too feel that
we are losing ground by putting an open source veneer around enormous
profit-machines’ products. This certainly doesn’t get us any closer to the
sustainable world we need.
If humanity is to have a brighter future, technology must operate with a more
collective spirit. Progress in this area will be rather difficult, given the
entrenched nature of the profit machine and its gate-keeper mentality.
Thank you for initiating this discussion.
-Patrick Hogan
From: Discuss On Behalf Of Suchith Anand
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2018 11:31 PM
To: discuss@lists.osgeo.org
Subject: [OSGeo-Discuss] Journal editors - please share summary statistics
Dear colleagues,
It has come to my attention that there is rapid increase in low quality and
dubious submissions send to all journals. This is a global problem that needs a
coordinated effort to help solve. With the rapid increase in lot of low
quality and dubious submissions to all journals , it is important that all
professional and scientific organisations are careful in this .
My humble suggestion and request is that all GIS professional organisations
should avoid taking any sponsorship or royalty for scholarly publications
(books, journals etc) from any GIS vendors . If a professional association
takes sponsorship for any scholarly publication (edited books etc) from any
GIS vendor and agrees to publish it through the vendor’s press then there is
potential issues with independent peer review and ensuring scientific quality.
It is only natural that any GIS vendor publication press to have vested
interests in promoting their products and agenda. It also makes it easy for
the vendor to get endorsement for their products from scientific and
professional organisations using this route.
By taking sponsorship for scholarly publications (edited books etc) from any
vendors , it will then become difficult for the Professional Organisations to
take strong moral stand against low quality and dubious submissions for other
journals .Especially in times we are seeing increase in fake scientific
articles submissions etc, it is important to have clear guidelines for any
sponsorship.
I am happy to work on a Open Letter to highlight this issue but will need help
from the wider community. If you are a journal editor, it will be very helpful,
if you can share the statistics of how many articles that you have identified
in the last three years that are problem and you have rejected .It will be
helpful to share examples of these (removing author details etc) ,