Publish or Perish: a gravy train

The world of medical science is awash with predatory journals, and they seem especially prevalent in the USA. You may have seen my previous interactions with Global Advances in Health and Medicine, a journal which publishes any kind of quackery you care to invent. Then last week, I received this puzzling email from The Gazette of Medical Sciences:

Energy Medicine: Review of paper by Christina L Ross

I am indebted to Richard Rasker for the following critique of this paper:

Ross Christina L. Energy Medicine: Current Status and Future Perspectives. Glob Adv Health Med. 2019; 8: 2164956119831221

I have not included Ross’ list of references. Readers should refer to the original paper which is here. The original headings are used, and original text is italicised. The reviewer’s references are linked to sources, and listed at the end.

Peer review – an update

I am very happy to respond more fully to Liz Wager’s comment here. It seems that my message to COPE disappeared into the ether somehow. I completed the contact form on the website, got confirmation that it had been received, and then nothing. Technical problem? Not sure, but I can certainly trust Liz when she says she never saw it.

So is this peer review?

I get invited to peer review papers for a few journals, and the process is usually well managed by the editors. I have had to recommend outright rejection on rare occasions, and one of those was quite recently. I was sent a manuscript by Evidence Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine . I normally regard such review work as confidential, so I won’t identify the author.

The cheque book is mightier than the pen…..

Science publishing is big business. Ask Robert Maxwell – or rather you should have asked him when you had the chance. He started his business empire by siphoning off Germany’s scientific discoveries after World War 2 and publishing them in a stable of journals under his newly acquired Pergamon Press banner. The world is hungry for knowledge, and people who discover what they think is new knowledge are desperate for an audience. I am of the opinion that however ludicrous your claim, you can get it published somewhere in the world, and probably in a `peer reviewed’ journal.