In memoriam. Australian Journalism. Judd Wept

Finally Essendon's social media team manager to acknowledge AFLW exists. https://t.co/sWxIWjHaUz

— Sally Whyte (@sallywhyte) March 20, 2017

I don’t quite get the criticism.

Nope. But it does show you the effort people will go to in order to play the game of: kick the EFC.

2 Likes

Young woman yells at cloud?

lol, …Dep EDITOR of Crikey, & LEAD WRITER can’t manager to spell manage in Tweet ,…

Is that the news here?

Who the heck is Sally Whyte?

Essendon supporter apparently.

Yeah, well, so am I…i doubt anyone would give a toss if I wrote that.

I don’t think anyone cares. I think they’re just perplexed.

I would assume it would be pronounced borsh or bors. Don’t hold me to it though, been a while since I’ve spoken any of the Slavic languages

You reckon journalists pick this up before publishing ‘health’ or ‘science’ articles and such?

Scientists outwit predatory publishers by tricking them into appointing a fake editor

Kate Aubusson

Has there ever been a more impressive academic than Dr Anna O. Szust? The prolific polymath has been appointed editor at almost 50 academic journals covering a mind-boggling array of scientific fields.

The problem is, Dr Szust does not exist.

Using their limited wiles (vague flattery, phishing tools, spam software and terrible grammar) predatory publishers court academics with polite invitations to join advisory boards, editorial teams, conference line-ups.

They appear to aggressively and indiscriminately recruit academics to their editorial boards to give the boards an air of legitimacy, often sending offers to researchers working in fields with no link to the journal’s purported subject matter. A public health researcher may be invited to join the board of journals covering neuroscience, metallurgy, or civil engineering.

A group of researchers, so fed up with the daily bombardment of emails from “parasitic publishers”, created a fake scientist, Anna O. Szust, (oszust translates to “a fraud” in Polish).

The colleagues from the University of Wroclaw, Poland, gave Dr Szust fake degrees, book chapters from fake publishing houses, research interests, a faculty webpage and accounts with Academia.edu, Google+ and Twitter and set her loose.

They emailed Dr Szust’s CV and cover letter to 360 journals, 120 of which they suspected were predatory “blacklisted” journals.

While all the reputable titles ignored or rejected her application, one in three of the blacklist publishers (48 in total) appointed Dr Szust as an editor, often within days, even hours, of the application being sent.

At least 12 appointed Dr Szust on condition of, or strongly encouraging, some form of payment or profit.

Several publications “revealed themselves to be even more mercenary than we had expected”, the researchers wrote in a paper published in Nature on Thursday.

They impressed upon the non-existent Dr Szust the importance of collecting articles from researchers who would pay to be published, and offered her a cut of the profits.

It could have been a tidy earner for Dr Szust, as one journal responded with “It’s our pleasure to add your name as our editor in chief for this journal with no responsibilities”, her creators said.

They are not the first to plant fictional characters on editorial boards, but their operation was the first systematic comparison of suspected predatory journals, open access titles and quality publications.

There has been increasing concern about the rise of predatory publishing as an organised industry as purveyors routinely collect fees – often exorbitant amounts – from researchers in exchange for accepting their papers.

Beall’s blacklist – compiled by University of Colorado librarian Jeffrey Beall – detailed almost 10,000 potential predatory publishers before his online archive was removed in January for unknown reasons. An estimated half a million papers had been published in the suspect journals by 2015.

In 2013, journalist John Bohannon reported his fictitious, and overtly flawed, research paper was accepted for publication by 157 of 304 open access journals on the proviso that he paid for the honour.

“The open access movement, although noble in its intent, has been an unwitting host to these parasitic publishers,” the researchers wrote.

They said their goal was not to deceive, but to warn academics who might become prey, especially early-career researchers, in a climate where pressure to publish is often tied to funding and career advancement.

As for Dr Szust, it was difficult to predict to trajectory of her publishing career. She is still listed as a member of the editorial board of 11 journal websites (and one she never applied to), even after her Pygmalions wrote to the publications revealing her non-existence.

She is also listed as a member of the advisory board of the Journals Open Access Indexing Agency, the mission of which is to “increase the visibility and ease of use of open access scientific and scholarly journals”, the researchers said.

1 Like

Scientists discover vitamin that may reverse the anti-ageing process

Really. Reverse the ANTI aging process?

8 Likes

Hoping this is an elaborate troll, but highly unlikely. Even nutcase Alex Jones, who helped start this bullshit, is trying to distance himself from it.

Wasn’t sure where to post this but thought a few Blitzers might like the sentiment.

‘Grammar vigilante’ tackles UK signs
Press Association11:42PM April 3, 2017
Save

A self-confessed “grammar vigilante” has been secretly correcting bad punctuation on street signs and shop fronts in England’s southwest for more than a decade.

The anonymous crusader carries out his work in the dead of night in Bristol using the “Apostrophiser” - a long-handled tool he created to reach the highest signs.

The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, told the BBC correcting rogue apostrophes is his speciality.

He uses stickers, rather than paint, to cover up errors.

“I do think it is a cause worth pursuing. I have felt extremely nervous and the heart has been thumping,” he told the broadcaster.

But the man maintained he had not committed any crime.

“It’s more a of a crime to have the apostrophes wrong in the first place,” he said.

11 Likes

I thought Noonan was local.

5 Likes

He is, … but his brother is not.

Just to get back at you a bit…my brother died from cancer in 2000.

About time this sort of thing happened. People who misuse apostrophes like that should be publicly humiliated.

‘He’s retired, mate’: Journo’s Dogs clanger
LUKE Beveridge has laughed off a question from a reporter after the loss to Fremantle suggesting he should call up Will Minson next week. SATURDAY BLOG

Saw that. Beveridge could have torched the guy but played it calmly. Can you imagine if that was Malthouse or Lyon?

On ABC radio not long ago, there was a report on Sean Spicer being a ■■■■ again, this time, saying that [sic] …even Hitler didn’t use chemical warfare…’
In the report, the host said (read) “…the furore erupted when…”
Bad choice of words for radio…

5 Likes

I can feel one of those re captioned Hitler video things coming …