A respected Canadian cardiology journal was purchased by offshore investors and “is now printing scientific junk for hire, but still trading on its original good name,” reports The Ottawa Citizen. “For $1,200 U.S. they’ll print anything — even a garbled blend of fake cardiology, Latin grammar and missing graphs submitted by the Citizen.” Meanwhile, the website Scholarly Open Access has been compiling a growing list of thousands of such scientific journals, including many psychiatric journals, that publish anything for a price.
“This is paying off spectacularly. Experimental & Clinical Cardiology published 142 articles in July alone, worth a total of $170,000 U.S. for one month,” reports the Citizen, explaining that many academics and researchers needing publishing credits and the stamp of journal credibility are more than willing to pay up. “It operates online only and doesn’t bother with editing, so it has almost no costs.”
The new International Journal of Psychiatry, though, seems to have a slightly higher editorial standard — it provides a button and simple sign-up procedure to “Become an Editor.”
Respected medical journal turns to dark side (Ottawa Citizen, August 20, 2014)