Abstract: 

This informative review will go review an article called “The Price for Predatory Publishing? $50 Million” published in The New York Times on April 3, 2019. It will talk about how in the Scientific Research world, there are detrimental imposters. Self- appointed predatory journals, online publications with official- sounding names that publish virtually anything, even nonsense, that  an academic researcher submits, but for a fee. Omics publishes many journals in areas such as medicine, chemistry, and engineering. It will further explain how the Federal Trade Commission claimed that Omics violated the agency’s prohibition on deceiving business practices. It will talk about if Omics does not change its practices, the F.T.C will have the journals taken offline and will get in contact with hotels or venues where their company holds conferences informing them that they are helping the company violate a court order. Organizations like this are misleading and have poor legitimacy of its journals. Practices like these stand in sharp contrast to those of authorized scientific journals.

In the article “The Price for Predatory Publishing? $50 Million” it will talk about the imposters in the Scientific world. Due to the detrimental imposters in the Scientific Research world, critics have maintained these journals are undermining scientific credibility along with wasting grant money. The Federal Trade Commission stepped in, announcing that it has won a $50 Million court judgment against Omics International of Hyderabad, India, and its owner, Srinubabu Gedela. The Omics is an organization that publishes hundreds of journals in many areas. They also organize conferences. The F.T.C. claims that this organization violated the agencies prohibition on dishonest business practices. Organizations like this are misleading and have poor legitimacy of its journals. When predatory publishers receive papers the journals often accept and publish them immediately, with a quick review or none at all. Practices like the Omics  stand in sharp contrast to those of authorized scientific journals.

The Omics is an organization that publishes hundreds of journals in medicine, chemistry, engineering, etc. The Omics violated the agencies prohibition on dishonest business practices according to the F.T.C. “In addition to the judgement, a federal judge in Nevada – where Omics has mail drops – ordered the company to cease its deceptive business practices, including failing to disclose fees, misleading authors about the legitimacy of its journals and marketing conferences with star speakers who never agreed to participate.“ stated in The New York Times by Gina Kolata. However, Mr.Gedela’s attorney Kishore Vattikoti wrote in an email stating, “It’s quite surprising for us that court has passed an order against defendants in this case without calling for a trial which is unjustifiable and violation of natural justice.” This resulted in a senior staff attorney at the F.T.C. stating that it was noted that the court had granted summary judgment because “there are no material facts in dispute that warrant a trial”. (The New York Times, April 3, 2019)  It was stated by Jeffrey Beal, a former scholarly communications librarian at the University of Colorado Denver that “There are hundreds of predatory publishers, but Omics is the evil empire.”

Organizations like this are misleading and have poor legitimacy of its journals. When organizations , such as Omics, receive papers, the journals usually accept and publish them immediately, with a quick review or none at all. The journals, in return, demand fees that they had not previously disclosed that can get as high as several thousand dollars, stated by the F.T.C. Also when authors ask to withdraw their papers, they are refused. Some academics who are set out as editors on the journal’s website actually are not editors and they are not even informed that their names are being used. 

Practices like these stand in sharp contrast to those of authorized scientific journals, where editors send papers to experts to be revised which is a process that can take weeks or months and can sometimes need to be further revised. Editors are not listed without their knowledge. Authorized journals are also indexed and listed in places such as PubMed, run by the National Library of Medicine which gives them a stamp of approval. Predatory journals, such as the Omics, claim that they are indexed but are not.  

It is doubted that the solicitations will come to an end, the publishers are worldwide. An associate professor of economics at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia said “…. there are hundreds of smaller publishers. Too  many, I think for the F.T.C. to go after. 

References:

• Kolata, Gina. “The Price for ‘Predatory’ Publishing? $50 Million.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 3 Apr. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/science/predatory-journals-ftc-omics.html?searchResultPosition=1.

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