EDITORIAL: Fake research in the halls of learning blight academia
Some new journals dispense with peer review to milk the academic subsidy system and enrich their writers
A group of unscrupulous academics at local universities have joined the long list of unsavoury people adept at identifying weaknesses in government rules in order to game the system and tap into public funds. Stellenbosch University’s Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (Crest) estimates the education department paid out R300m in subsidies over the 10 years to 2014 to reward academics for being published in dodgy “predatory” journals that prize quantity over quality. And as fast as government moved to raise awareness, academics figured other ways to bilk the state. The subsidies are generous — about R100,000 per publication — and universities are at liberty to decide whether to keep the money for general expenses, direct a portion to the author’s research budget or allocate the entire lot to the researcher to supplement their salary. Publishers of predatory journals use an open access model that turns the traditional business model on its head: instead of cha...
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