Comments on: Chaos Still Publishing Former Editor’s Work

By: Controversial Math Journal Relauches: New Editors, Focus on Rigorous Review « The Scholarly Kitchen

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:43:44 +0000

[...] publication, and spent several months publishing a long backlog of accepted manuscripts, including a string of articles by the retired Editor-in-Chief. It had all the appearances that the journal was in the process of closing [...]

By: toomuchcoffeeman

toomuchcoffeeman — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:21:48 +0000

Not strictly speaking “on topic”, but given the peculiar nature of English libel law, this seems (to have been?) a worrying development

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=44545&c=1

The thing is that burden of proof rests with the accused in such libel suits…

By: Said

Said — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:51:23 +0000

Still counting papers by El Naschie. Seven in this volume, six in that volume. Truly profound science. That is the quintessence of a new notion crackpots numerological blogging. Is that what useless lots can do as a substitution for being totally unable to produce anything not even numerology?

By: Anon

Anon — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:31:44 +0000

It would be such a Utopian scenario. All the scientific libraries demand their money back in a class-action lawsuit for years that Elsevier was publishing this journal and forcing the libraries to buy them. That would restore their budget after years of Elsevier’s plundering.

By: Anon

Anon — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:28:37 +0000

What about the authors, who probably already transferred their copy rights to the Journal? Does Elsevier has any obligations toward them to publish their articles?
I fail to understand why would Elsevier will insist on continuing to tarnish it’s own reputation by sticking with such a controversial journal.

By: Philip Davis

Philip Davis — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:36:29 +0000

The only responsibility a publisher has to libraries (or to their subscription intermediaries), is to deliver the number of issues promised. There is no explicit (or even implicit) guarantee that the information is valid, trustworthy, or even original.

In an historic case of republishing which took place over 3 decades, Emerald Publishing systematically filled many of its journals with previously published articles from other Emerald journals. No lawsuits from libraries ensued, and I’m unaware of any library cancellations that took place as a result.

see:
Davis, P. M. (2005). The Ethics of Republishing: A Case Study of Emerald/MCB University Press Journals. Library Resources & Technical Services, 49(2), 72-78. http://hdl.handle.net/1813/2572

Davis, P. M. (2005). Article duplication in Emerald/MCB journals is more extensive than first reported: Possible conflicts of financial and functional interests are uncovered. Library Resources & Technical Services, 49(3), 138-150. http://hdl.handle.net/1813/2574

By: Anon

Anon — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:02:06 +0000

The papers are the same numerological junk.
I imagine that Elsevier has contractual obligations/lawsuit fear which prevents it to shutdown the journal and admit that the peer-review process was flawed. Because in that case, the libraries which were forced to subscribe to it, can sue Elsevier in court for fraud and demand their Elsevier-depleted money back. May be the blog authors, who are publishing professionals can comment on this issue.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:45:00 +0000

So more to the point, are the new El Naschie papers valid scholarship, or not? That seems to be the relevant issue.