Re: predatory journals and conferences article in NY Times

IMO the web makes the traditional publishing bottleneck obsolete -- 
including the need for peer review, which is mostly just a crude method 
of indicating endorsement.

Perhaps researchers should now publish their work on Facebook, Google+ 
or other votable media, and their institutions should grant tenure based 
on the number of "Like" votes they get.  ;)

David

On 04/23/2013 02:02 PM, ProjectParadigm-ICT-Program wrote:
> Maybe I should rephrase "rating and grading" and the term mental narrow
> focus reflects the fact that scientists and researchers when
> concentrating on their academic work focus on a small area of all
> scientific endeavors. There is a subtle difference between mental narrow
> focus and narrow mindedness.
>
> There needs to be a way to gauge the operations of journal publishers
> whether they be open access or traditional peer-reviewed academic to
> know if they are bona fide in the first place. Librarians in general are
> the best people to keep track of what is out there available in journals.
>
> But it is the scientists and researchers that can spot the good and weed
> out the bad journals.
>
> Because these are dire times in terms of financial resources available
> for librarians and scientists alike and mala fide companies and
> individuals will seize the opportunities to hawk their "new and less
> expensive open access or hybrid business model" journals and scientific
> conferences and events.
>
> It is just the newest category of scams to hit the Internet and markets
> and it will not go away.
>
> Caveat emptor, mundus vult decipi.
> Milton Ponson
> GSM: +297 747 8280
> PO Box 1154, Oranjestad
> Aruba, Dutch Caribbean
> Project Paradigm: A structured approach to bringing the tools for
> sustainable development to all stakeholders worldwide by creating ICT
> tools for NGOs worldwide and: providing online access to web sites and
> repositories of data and information for sustainable development
>
> This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and
> intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are
> addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the
> system manager. This message contains confidential information and is
> intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named
> addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Gannon Dick <gannon_dick@yahoo.com>
> *To:* "leon@dcs.shef.ac.uk" <leon@dcs.shef.ac.uk>; Phillip Lord
> <phillip.lord@newcastle.ac.uk>
> *Cc:* ProjectParadigm-ICT-Program <metadataportals@yahoo.com>;
> "public-lod@w3.org" <public-lod@w3.org>; semantic-web <semantic-web@w3.org>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, April 23, 2013 9:35 AM
> *Subject:* Re: predatory journals and conferences article in NY Times
>
> +1
> The Nominations in the Semantic Asset Utilization Category:
> Best catch: Milton
> Best Intelligent Life in Journalism Discovery: NOAA "New York Times"
> Best Village Idiot Impersonation, don't believe it for a minute: Phil
> "I'm just a ..."
> Best Monte Carlo Simulation Marksmanship: Leon "... Mission Creep"
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Leon Derczynski <leon@dcs.shef.ac.uk>
> *To:* Phillip Lord <phillip.lord@newcastle.ac.uk>
> *Cc:* ProjectParadigm-ICT-Program <metadataportals@yahoo.com>;
> "public-lod@w3.org" <public-lod@w3.org>; semantic-web <semantic-web@w3.org>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, April 23, 2013 6:05 AM
> *Subject:* Re: predatory journals and conferences article in NY Times
>
> IIRC, impact factor was only ever intended as an heuristic for
> librarians when making marginal decisions over which journals to
> subscribe to on behalf of their institution. Everything else is but
> mission creep.
>
> All the best,
>
>
> Leon
>
>
> On 23 April 2013 12:38, Phillip Lord <phillip.lord@newcastle.ac.uk
> <mailto:phillip.lord@newcastle.ac.uk>> wrote:
>
>
>     It's high time universities stopped judging academics by *where* they
>     have published rather than *what*.
>
>     We already have a form of rating for journals. It's called impact
>     factor. It doesn't work, because judging papers by their place of
>     publication is nonsensical.
>
>     Linked data and semantic web technologies provide opportunities, I
>     think, to handle the metadata associated with scientific publication, to
>     represent the knowledge in academic publications, and to do so without
>     the necessity for a centralised authority.
>
>     But, then I am a researcher with a metanl narrow focus, so what do I
>     know?
>
>     Phil
>
>     ProjectParadigm-ICT-Program <metadataportals@yahoo.com
>     <mailto:metadataportals@yahoo.com>> writes:
>      > This is a problem which manifests itself in every discipline and
>     it preys on
>      > basic human needs for recognition. The current publishing world
>     of academia
>      > itself is to blame partially.
>      >
>      > Because in each field of science scientists and researchers
>     usually have a
>      > short list of peer-reviewed journals and conferences in their
>     mental narrow
>      > focus, only librarians typically have a (often not much) better
>     overview of
>      > available reputable journals and conferences in respective fields.
>      >
>      > It is high time for a global registry of scientific publishers
>     and their
>      > respective journals and a form of rating and grading them.
>      >
>      > Linked data and semantic web technologies provide opportunities
>     to create such
>      > rating and grading systems, and maybe an item for a separate W3C
>     Community
>      > Group?
>      >
>      >
>      > Milton Ponson
>      > GSM: +297 747 8280
>      > PO Box 1154, Oranjestad
>      > Aruba, Dutch Caribbean
>      > Project Paradigm: A structured approach to bringing the tools for
>     sustainable
>      > development to all stakeholders worldwide by creating ICT tools
>     for NGOs
>      > worldwide and: providing online access to web sites and
>     repositories of data
>      > and information for sustainable development
>      >
>      > This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and
>     intended
>      > solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are
>     addressed. If
>      > you have received this email in error please notify the system
>     manager. This
>      > message contains confidential information and is intended only
>     for the
>      > individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not
>      > disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.
>
>     --
>     Phillip Lord,                           Phone: +44 (0) 191 222 7827
>     Lecturer in Bioinformatics,             Email:
>     phillip.lord@newcastle.ac.uk <mailto:phillip.lord@newcastle.ac.uk>
>     School of Computing Science, http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/phillip.lord
>     Room 914 Claremont Tower,               skype: russet_apples
>     Newcastle University,                   twitter: phillord
>     NE1 7RU
>
>
>
>
> --
> Leon R A Derczynski
> Research Associate, NLP Group
>
> Department of Computer Science
> University of Sheffield
> Regent Court, 211 Portobello
> Sheffield S1 4DP, UK
>
> +45 5157 4948
> http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/~leon/ <http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/%7Eleon/>
>
>
>
>

Received on Tuesday, 23 April 2013 18:38:39 UTC