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New Journal Misleads About Affiliated Editors
February 12 to February 13, 2009 Summary: A journal prepares to launch and names unconsenting well known editors as being affiliated with them, encourages students to become part of its student editorial team for a $150 fee ($100 for those in developing countries) and receive a certificate from the International Council of Medical Journal Editors, an apparent effort to mislead individuals into believing they are referring to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Are these scams made possible by the wild Web or are we just learning more about them because we can? Regardless, caveat (ie, editor, author, and student) emptor.—MW
I wanted to alert you to an e-mail currently in circulation about a journal called Scientific Medicine (see below), which appears to be launching soon. The e-mail implies that I am involved as an editor, and that Richard Smith (who is on the PLoS Board of Directors) is also involved—but we have never heard of it, and we have nothing to do with it. We have informed the managing editor to immediately cease implying that we are connected to this project in any way.
Gavin Yamey
Senior Editor, PLoS Medicine (www.plosmedicine.org)
Consulting Editor, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases (www.plosntds.org)
‘From: Devesh Oberoi <devesh.oberoi@scientificmedicineonline.com>
Date: Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 12:52 PM
Subject: Scientific Medicine- a new international medical journal –invitation
Dear Friend,
SCIENTIFIC MEDICINE
(An International Peer Reviewed Medical Journal)
This is to inform you about the launch of a new international medical journal called SCIENTIFIC MEDICINE. The journal aims to become one of the top international journals in the time to come and compete with the best in the world. It comprises of several top-end basic science researchers, practicing clinicians , medical scientists and international journal editors from across the world (Mainly US , Europe and India)
Henry Heillich (USA), Richard Smith (BMJ), Gaven Yamey (Plos Medicine), Sreenarsamaiah JP (American Journal of Gastroenterology), Roeneberg Till (Euclock, Germany) Kumar A and Hegde BM (Manipal, India), Charlton BG (Medical Hypotheses, UK) , Vijay kumar Sharma and Ranga Uday kumar (JNCASR, India) along with the large number of Editors of various international journals.
Unlike other journals that are not very much open to short innovative ideas, technological innovations and common sense based but highly useful research, SCIENTIFIC MEDICINE will encourage the publication of all such articles and shall give minimum importance to the publication of clinical trials conducted by pharma companies.
In the International research arena, the student-review body generally forms a part of the editorial team of the journals, which gives the desiring students the opportunity to partake in individual paper-review with constructive feedback from the editorial team. This gives them an insight into the nitty-gritties of successful paper writing and publishing which in turn hones their skills and makes effective researchers of them. Unfortunately, this practice is not followed in India and other developing world countries, due to the lack of awareness and the willingness of senior researchers to view students as prospective researchers with innovative minds. Thus, in an effort to create opportunity for the deserving students, this has been a key strategy of 'Scientific Medicine'.
The journal is unique because it also involves a Student Editorial Team. The team is determined and committed to function as a school where all the amateur and young investigators , primarily medical students, will learn the art of scientific writing and critical analysis of research papers from their guides who will be none other than the distinguished members of the Editorial Board.
Through this the students will get an opportunity not only to hone their scientific and editorial skills under the mentorship of their team heads but will also share a platform to discuss their ideas with the senior researchers and initiate collaborative research if possible. This idea has sparked interest in the minds of several top end researchers worldwide who have already consented to be on the editorial board.
SCIENTIFIC MEDICINE is not just a journal; rather it is an organization that brings together all the likeminded people with strong research aptitude on one platform. In future SCIENTIFIC MEDICINE plans to collaborate with prestigious international organizations and independent researchers to provide its members an opportunity for international level collaborative projects.
All students with a strong research aptitude and experience are encouraged to apply. The membership in the student editorial team will be valid for 2 years.
The membership fee for the entire term would be US $ 150 for developed world students and US $ 100 for developing world students. At the end of the term the students shall be awarded a certificate of participation in the editorial process which would be recognized by the International Council of Medical Journal Editors.
As a member of the journal students will also be eligible for the membership of International Council of Science Editors.
Interested students may write with their CV , research background and a letter of in a single file to:
editor@scientificmedicineonline.com
or
info@scientificmedicineonline.com
PS: The website is under construction and would be ready within a week subsequent to which shall send you the link. In the meantime you can spread a word about this opportunity in your country. i assure you that he journal is an equal opportunity platform for all students and at this point it would be able to accomodate around 50-60 deserving students from your country.
Regards
Dr. Devesh V. Oberoi
Managing Editor
SCIENTIFIC MEDICINE’
________________________
The International Committee of Medical Journal
Editors thanks Dr Yamey for bringing this e-mail to the committee's
attention. Scientific American refers
to endorsement by the International Council of Medical Journal Editors. I am
unaware of that Council, but the International Committee of Medical Journal
editors has had no involvement in Scientific
Medicine.
Christine Laine for the ICMJE
________________________
This appears to be an effort to collect money from students.
It may be a scam.
Praveen Roy
Editor-in-Chief, The
Internet Journal of Gastroenterology
________________________
We need to find ways and means to stop such unethical and
unprincipled actions. Are there any guideline, restrictions or bindings for inclusion
of names as editorial board members, guides, advisors, etc? Can WAME initiate
some action against such elements. Scientific
Medicine looks like a scam.
Thanks,
Tej K Kaul
Chief Editor, Journal
Of Anaesthesiology Clinical Pharmacology
________________________
Nice as it would be, WAME would probably work 24 hours doing
nothing other than this. There are so many fly-by-night 'open access' journal
publishers out there these days, it seems close to everyone with a Web server opened
an open access 'publishing' business. A big wild west for folks out there to
make a quick buck on desperate grad students and faculty who need to publish in
order to avoid perishing in the academy. My favourite is a business model
charging per author and differential rates according to the 'publisher's'
estimates as to how substantial a given discipline can be milked for the upload
to the Web server.
I always assumed that this would be a predictable side-effect of such low
barriers to market entry. It'll be fun to see how the already profitable
elements in the market try to distinguish themselves from their dodgier upstart
competitors. Some of the dodgiest players have huge lists of academics
populating their editorial 'teams', so unless someone knows his or her way
around academic publishing, it is easy to fall for such scam artists.
I promise to shut up on this from now on (well, will try).
Udo Schuklenk
________________________
Is this some kind of a fraud involving unsuspecting students
and charging them to be a student editor for 2 years and then getting a
certificate from International Council of Medical Journal Editors, which I
assume is non existent—though there is a lot on Googlewith people trying to
find their address? Some of the indexing services that use ICMJE guidelines
have expanded it as council and not committee and probably from there this
error is continuing, there are a few links that I would like you to look at
where ICMJE is called a council—one of them is from my own country’s journals
available in Indian medlars.
http://medind.nic.in/ibi/t05/i4/ibit05i4p207.pdf
http://list.uvm.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9612B&L=MEDLIB-L&P=105522
http://www.bioline.org.br/request?ph05055
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1449185#id575528
http://healthcare.partners.org/phsirb/ct.gov_faqdetails.htm
http://www.continence.org.au/site/index.cfm?display=112963
http://www.ronbun.jp/chest/pdf/16.pdf
DOI 10.1378/chest.06-2906
http://www.aspan.org/Resources/AuthorshipGuidelines/tabid/3688/Default.aspx
see reference 1 http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/PDF/1754-9493-2-6.pdf
http://theoncologist.alphamedpress.org/misc/ifora.dtl
Manoj Pandey
Editor-in-Chief, World Journal of Surgical Oncology