
Predatory journal accepts fake story about scooters and hydroxychloroquine - programLyrique
https://scienceintegritydigest.com/2020/08/16/predatory-journal-accepts-fake-story-about-scooters-and-hydroxychloroquine/
======
stzup7
This is not the full story.

That specific journal was targeted because they published an article in favour
of Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin back in July by a team of French
doctors
([https://www.journalajmah.com/index.php/AJMAH/article/view/30...](https://www.journalajmah.com/index.php/AJMAH/article/view/30224))

That same article was then cited by French member of parliament Martine Wonner
as being sufficiently peer reviewed and having the same value as a paper
published by Lancet, with intent to let doctors prescribe hcq as they see fit.

Details (in French): [http://www.mimiryudo.com/blog/2020/08/le-meilleur-
article-de...](http://www.mimiryudo.com/blog/2020/08/le-meilleur-article-de-
tous-les-temps/)

~~~
andreilys
The Lancet study was also debunked and retracted in case you didn’t know.

It’s a sad state of affairs when science has been hijacked to score political
points but I guess that’s nothing new.

[https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/04/lancet-retracts-major-
co...](https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/04/lancet-retracts-major-
covid-19-paper-that-raised-safety-concerns-about-malaria-drugs/)

------
jonathanstrange
It's a predatory journal, so what else would you expect?

There is a reason why these are ignored in Academia or might even get you into
trouble with your university and/or funding authorities if you publish in one
of those. They prey on postdocs who are under insane publication pressures -
the amount of high quality publications that used to ensure you're getting
tenure nowadays barely manage to get you a temporary follow-up postdoc grant.
I've personally been in committees for crappy short-term postdoc calls in
which the majority of candidates should have been assistant professors.

These journals will publish _anything_ , they are only in it for the money.
Nobody reads them and if they are in your CV they count against you. Academics
are bombarded with "invitations" to those predatory journals, I'm getting
several mails a day and sometimes even have to check carefully because they
tend to have almost the same title as highly reputable journals. To be fair,
it's quite easy to recognize them once you see their "publication fees".

I'm personally more worried about the many non-predatory crap journals that
reside in some grey zone, since many colleagues successfully overinflate their
CVs with the help of those and in some countries universities are relying way
too much on mere indicator counting in their hiring policies. Quality research
takes time and there is a race to mediocrity at some places in some
disciplines. (Arguably, this does not apply to the top universities but most
universities are not top, of course.)

------
Vosporos
My god that paper was hilarious

~~~
pvaldes
Not, this is not funny stuff, absolutely unacceptable behaviour. Is making the
life of scientists miserable for profit and shepherding naive people to behave
dangerously:

[https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/moms-go-undercover-
fig...](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/moms-go-undercover-fight-fake-
autism-cures-private-facebook-groups-n1007871)

~~~
braythwayt
Things can be very serious and funny at the same time.

Come now, one of the authors is the President’s dog, and most of the other
authors have names that are plays on words. And the entire article satirizes
Didier Raoult’s ridiculous prediction.

This “stunt” speaks to a very serious problem, but it does so in a very funny
way. That isn’t new, either. Comics often use humour to address deeply serious
problems. Eddie Murphy made a legendary Saturday Night Live skit called,
“White Like Me” that spoke to white privilege by positing a secret, hidden
agreement amongst white Americans where everything is free for whites, it’s
only non-whites who have to pay for goods or qualify for bank loans.

Serious? Very, just ask the people protesting racial injustice in America.
Funny stuff? Also very.

~~~
JorgeGT
I am sad that when the article explains the joke names and affiliations they
missed that one of the authors is apparently based in Ankh Morpork. The Unseen
University needs to pump up that impact factor!

~~~
braythwayt
That's an absolutely killer observation!

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankh-
Morpork](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankh-Morpork)

------
RcouF1uZ4gsC
> A fake paper is fabricated research, which falls under the definition of
> misconduct. So should the authors of such spoof papers, who write those with
> the intention to expose flaws in the peer-review process of predatory
> journals be accused of misconduct themselves? There have been many
> discussions about that, such as in the case of the Sokal Hoax, where the
> author of the fake paper was accused of deceit.

Another professor, Peter Boghossian, who did something like this was actually
banned from further research by Portland State University.

[https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13489](https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13489)

~~~
shureluck
I love the fake papers. I think it is necessary, like a Snowden move, to
expose how bad publications are at weeding out bad data and conclusions. It
only serves to make the publishers look bad, not the writers.

~~~
fabian2k
This is about a predatory open access journal that isn't even indexed on
Pubmed. Scientists will never see papers from that journal anyway.

And anyone publishing in it is either hopelessly naive and without support
from an experienced researcher, or just publishing there to put publications
on their CV, knowing that the paper will likely accept anything you throw at
them.

~~~
JPLeRouzic
>> This is about a predatory open access journal that isn't even indexed on
Pubmed.

I have read very few strange things on Pubmed, but still some seems out of
place in a medical/biology publications repository [0-2], so I have a question
about indexation on Pubmed, is it possible to tweak this indexation to make it
more stringent?

[0]
[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28366104/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28366104/)

[1]
[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17574055/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17574055/)

[2]
[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9324572/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9324572/)

------
netsharc
Sadly people can now believe anything and cite a paper (or, a random blog) to
prove said belief. That Didier Raoult basically got exposed and his reputation
torn apart (1) (imo justifiably, his drug trial showing the effectiveness of
the drug was dodgy), but I've seen a Facebook contact from France defend him
saying he was being tarnished by "the elite/MSM".

Another contact I know shares "Bill Gates did it"/"wants to kill us all
starting with the Africans using 'vaccines'" stories, and she claims she's not
the one being brainwashed, but mainstream media readers are, because MSM are
controlled by the Rothschilds and Rockerfellers...

(1) [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/12/magazine/didier-raoult-
hy...](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/12/magazine/didier-raoult-
hydroxychloroquine.html)

