News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Why I published in a predatory journal by thaumasiotes on Monday April 24, 2017 @01:23AM (#14182127)
It seems odd to call the journal "predatory" in this situation. Who is it preying on? The person who got rejected from a journal with standards but still wanted to keep his job?
Re:Why I published in a predatory journal by Someone on Monday April 24, 2017 @03:20AM (#14182485)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predatory_open_access_publishi...:

"Complaints that are associated with predatory open-access publishing include

Accepting articles quickly with little or no peer review or quality control, including hoax and nonsensical papers.

Notifying academics of article fees only after papers are accepted.

Aggressively campaigning for academics to submit articles or serve on editorial boards.

Listing academics as members of editorial boards without their permission, and not allowing academics to resign from editorial boards.

Appointing fake academics to editorial boards.[34] Mimicking the name or web site style of more established journals.

Misleading claims about the publishing operation, such as a false location.

Improper use of ISSNs.

Fake or non-existent impact factors."

One could say they prey on society's trust in science.

Re:Why I published in a predatory journal by thaumasiotes on Monday April 24, 2017 @03:39AM (#14182541)
Ah, then society's trust in science should be warned to watch out.

Or perhaps the metaphor is misapplied?

Re:Why I published in a predatory journal by Angostura on Monday April 24, 2017 @04:22AM (#14182702)
> Ah, then society's trust in science should be warned to watch out.

Perhaps you've noticed an alarming rise in society's distrust in science, perhaps partly exacerbated by an increase in poorly peer-reviewed publications.

Re:Why I published in a predatory journal by pjc50 on Monday April 24, 2017 @05:38AM (#14182964)
No, that's mostly a result of global warming denialism paid for by fossil fuel companies, vaccine denialism pushed by chancers like Andrew Wakefield, and the completely awful state of media pop-science.
Re:Why I published in a predatory journal by Angostura on Monday April 24, 2017 @09:33AM (#14184143)
Except that - if you've ever argued with a conspiracy theorist online, you will know their propensity for posting links to really bad papers as "proof".
Re:Why I published in a predatory journal by dandelion_lover on Monday April 24, 2017 @06:16AM (#14183117)
You forgot anti-GMO horror stories paid by agriculture and "organic food" companies.
Re:Why I published in a predatory journal by pjc50 on Monday April 24, 2017 @08:08AM (#14183563)
I'm not sure on this one; I suspect there's a lot of "media management" going on by Monsanto, as well as a lot of activists who are under-informed on the technology. Personally I thought that Big Ag was in favour of GMO and that organic food wasn't big enough to fund a disinformation campaign.
Re:Why I published in a predatory journal by literallycancer on Monday April 24, 2017 @09:52AM (#14184283)
If a local producer is getting outpriced by a foreign company with more resources, turning it into "stop importing harmful GMOs" issue is rather convenient.
Re:Why I published in a predatory journal by castle-bravo on Monday April 24, 2017 @10:37AM (#14184622)
GMO is not inherently unsafe, nor is it inherently safe. Plants can be engineered to produce additional nutrients and better withstand drought, but they can also be engineered with insecticidal proteins that may be harmful to humans. This is perfectly analogous to pharmaceuticals. If someone said "ban all pharmaceuticals", we'd agree that they're crazy, but the correct response is not "pharmaceuticals are perfectly safe". Some pharmaceuticals are perfectly safe. Some are deadly poisons. GMOs need to go through an evaluation process before being approved for the open market.
Re:Why I published in a predatory journal by wsxcde on Monday April 24, 2017 @01:49AM (#14182188)
The problem with these journals isn't that they accept low-quality papers. They're called that because they don't make an honest attempt at peer-review, and the publishing/editing fees are pocketed by the publishers.

IEEE Access is an example of a journal which charges a hefty "article processing fee" and publishes rather mediocre papers. But I wouldn't call them a predatory journal. They do get feedback from real researchers working in the field, they do reject fake and obviously-flawed papers, and they do not just use the publishing fees to enrich themselves. The journal in the OP did none of these things.

Re:Why I published in a predatory journal by thaumasiotes on Monday April 24, 2017 @02:15AM (#14182270)
I am happy to stipulate that these journals do no review and pocket their editing fees. But they are not victimizing the authors, they're helping them. That's why they can charge fees.
Re:Why I published in a predatory journal by Ulti on Monday April 24, 2017 @07:54AM (#14183479)
There area also a lot of people naive to how BS publishing has become. Plenty of PhD students get sucked in, a common one is being asked to publish your thesis as a book. Learning hubris comes before an embarrassment is a right of passage to the vast majority of people who think anyone really wants to read their thesis in a bound form from a third rate publisher created last year.
Re:Why I published in a predatory journal by gjjrfcbugxbhf on Monday April 24, 2017 @12:46PM (#14185777)
In some arts/humanities subjects publishing a book is equivalent to publishing papers. These publishers are filling the same gap as the lower quality pay to publish journals.
Re:Why I published in a predatory journal by pjc50 on Monday April 24, 2017 @05:39AM (#14182971)
I would like to cite this comment as a great example of having a potentially valid point but presenting it in such a way as to make the audience reject it.
Re:Why I published in a predatory journal by jonathanstrange on Monday April 24, 2017 @06:21AM (#14183150)
Who is it preying on? The person who got rejected from a journal with standards but still wanted to keep his job?

Yes.