Almost ten years later, a researcher at the Federal University of Australia, Peter Vamplew, has managed to publish scientific work in the International Journal of Advanced Computer Technology, as says the Open Access Scholarly page. Vamplew replied to spam the publication attaching the PDF article, without writing a single word in the mail, and hoping that the responsible would read the message, moreover, very simple to understand.
You can only imagine the face of the investigator when he received an email from the magazine, instantly, informing him that his work had been accepted with "minor changes" (minor Changes in English). Not only that but, on a scale from 1 to 5, the paper was evaluated with the highest rating: Excellent. The category that came out worst stop was the presentation inexplicably got only a rating of Good.
Acceptance of the article implies that Vamplew must pay 120.75 euros for work, that is not even yours published. Something that is unlikely that the researcher feel like doing.
The funny thing is that the magazine ensures that all items received exceed a peer review (peer review), in which experts in the field (in this case it is not clear which) reviewed the article and appreciate the interest of possible publication and its accuracy and if necessary change or add something. Although throughout history there have been other fraudulent or joke that have been accepted, even in some prestigious journals, at least at first glance seemed real items. In this case nobody has hit a glance to a PDF that says absolutely nothing, or rather say something 900 times.
How is it possible that a serious scientific publication accept such a joke? The answer is easy: despite its pompous name, International Journal of Advanced Computer Technology is a fraud, and certainly not a serious magazine. This type of headers, legal but unethical, tirelessly send unwanted emails, which offer researchers publish articles for a price.
A MODEL OF LEGAL BUSINESS, BUT NOT ETHICAL
Publications such as the aforementioned lack impact index, a reliable indicator of the importance of a scientific publication, and is updated annually by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI for its acronym in English). Some of the most popular magazines are leading the classification Nature, Science and The Lancet.
In other words, these magazines take advantage of fever publication suffered by many researchers, stressed by having to publish at all costs. Pamphlets without any scientific impact, whose articles do not pass the most rigorous demand control Nature and Science, and only serve to increase the curriculum are many unscrupulous scientists based wallet.
These publications open access were baptized as "predatory" by the author of Open Access Scholarly, Jeffrey Beall, critic of such magazines. The name comes from its aggressive business model: bombarding mails to the researchers, who then have to pay if they want to publish them.
With the publication of this real joke is not the first time these predators make the ridiculous. In 2011, the International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications won the award for "most outstanding engineering magazine". Accolade they had created themselves.
Of course, the existence of these vultures exist does not prevent free access prestigious magazines, such as PLOS ONE and other publications of the Public Library of Science. But it highlights a problem of current scientific system in the craving for publishing has led to the creation of a business model no scientific reliability and that too often falls into ridicule all.
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