Just call me Mr Editor in Chief

By Brian Clegg

I have recently received an invitation I never expected to see. Apparently I am in demand to be the editor of a scientific journal – the prestigious-sounding American Journal of Physics and Applications.

You might expect me to been honoured by this offer. But something made me feel that perhaps this wasn’t all it appeared to be.

It is quite true that, as referenced above, I have written something that is technically considered to be an academic paper entitled Doctor Mirabilis: Roger Bacon’s legend and legacy. And I know of at least one other genuine paper with my name on it (strictly part of a technical reference book), which as it happens might be more appropriate as it was physics-based, rather than history of science. But I am not an academic, I mostly write books and I don’t have the right qualifications to be considered for such a post. Sadly, it feels like a situation where a name has been plucked from the internet to support some kind of dubious journal business.

A quick look into the publisher behind this journal, Science Publishing Group, finds it labelled a predatory publisher, based in Pakistan despite the journal name and the apparent New York address. According to Wikipedia it published 430 journals as of 2019. The Wikipedia entry lists both an accepted spoof article (allegedly written by Maggie Simpson of The Simpsons TV show fame) and an article in the American Journal of Applied Mathematics ‘containing an alleged proof of Buddhist karma’.

I asked Tom Chivers of the Science Fictions podcast about this publisher. As well as pointing to the issues mentioned above, he told me ‘More generally, paper mills are a growing problem – one recent estimate suggested 5% of the entire biomedical literature is fake – and the problem is the incentive structure in science: researchers must publish papers to advance their careers, so they are pushed to churn out as many papers as they can, whether by p-hacking positive results or by (in this case) faking them altogether. Cracking down on paper mills and fraud would be great, but can only be a partial fix – moving away from the publish-or-perish system and perhaps from journals altogether is the only way to remedy the underlying problem.’

In fairness, I thought I should ask the publisher what was in it for me. They responded (in suspiciously AI-generated fashion):

Greetings from the editorial office of American Journal of Physics and Applications.

The editorial board and reviewer team are voluntary positions with no financial compensation.

Benefits for Serving as Editorial Board Members and Reviewers:

1. Enhance academic influence and enrich your resume.

2. Receive a Certificate for acknowledging your contributions to the journal.

3. Get your name listed on the journal website.

4. Get access to the latest research and new contacts in your research field.

5. Get to know other scholars in your field and broaden academic connectivity.

6. Enjoy special offers on Article Processing Charges if you want to publish your manuscripts in the journal.

Ooh, a certificate! Hmm. Being an editor with no financial compensation seems something of a recipe for minimal editorial input. I think I’ll be giving it a miss.

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Now Appearing is the blog of science writer Brian Clegg (www.brianclegg.net), author of Inflight Science, Before the Big Bang and The God Effect.