The Adventures of a Mouse Malignancy Group Portraitist
Smut Clyde was busy with yet another Chinese paper mill. A plastic ruler was deployed.
By Leonid Schneider, on research integrity, biomedical ethics and academic publishing
Smut Clyde was busy with yet another Chinese paper mill. A plastic ruler was deployed.
“Even if we be under force and have to return to Galileo times, theories are going theirselves. […] Describing some subjects for them is similar to speaking of flying with airplane for people around 1000 years ago. I don’t wonder if they kill us for these theories as in Galileo times.” – Massimo Fioranelli, a looney
“Low Dose Medicine (LDM) arises from molecular biology, psychoneuroendocrine immunology and quantum physics. As for the use of low doses of the active ingredients of its drugs, it originates from the historical tradition of homeopathy.” – Professor Torello Lotti.
Smut Clyde investigates two more Chinese paper mills. One teamed up with an obscure Italian publisher, the other offers access to respectable society journals. How much of published and allegedly peer reviewed science is real?
“Publishing in natural sciences proceeds under structures similar to the mafia. Professors exploit the creativity of their subordinates. Predatory authorship increases the number of authors. This leads to a loss of scientific quality and destroys trust in science.”
Oncotarget, the somewhat controversial OA journal, switched from pretend-soliciting my services to threatening to sue me for defamation. Their lawyer writes my disrespect caused them financial damage.
Bremen rector Bernd Scholz-Reiter previously explained his predatory publishing and self-plagiarism as a personal crusade for Open Access. Now a closed access conference paper he coauthored was declared by his university as definitely not plagiarised.
The following is a rant in praise of preprints. I blog of usefulness of preprints, open science and open access, how BioRxiv works and their Plan U.
Ariel University is a settlers’ university, located outside of legal Israel borders. What Ariel lacks in academic performance or even official recognition, it makes up in support from right-wing politicians. This post addresses the scientific qualifications of Ariel’s rector Michael Zinigrad. Or the pretence thereof.
Frontiers is a somewhat unconventional open access publisher, which likes to have it both ways: playing scientific elite while accepting almost anything from paying customers. My regular contributor Smut Clyde will tell you below how some anti-vaccine scare-mongers managed to sneak in some rather dangerous works thanks to Frontiers’ unofficial “we don’t judge, we just charge” quasi-policy.









