She’s a good dog


Ollie is a good dog, yes she is. Such a good dog! It’s not her fault that she has ended up on the editorial boards of medical journals.

…in one respect, the Staffordshire Terrier differs radically from her canine peers: she has a burgeoning academic career, and sits on the editorial boards of seven medical journals.

As you may have guessed, the journals on whose boards Ollie sits are of the predatory variety. These are shadowy, online publications that mimic legitimate journals, but are prepared to publish anything in exchange for a fee that can run into thousands of dollars. Predatory journals prey on desperate young researchers under huge pressure to get their research published to further their careers.

Ollie’s owner is Mike Daube, Professor of Health Policy at Curtin University in Perth. Ollie likes to watch Mike working on his computer, and Mike gets a lot of emails from predatory journals. Wondering just how low these journals would go, he put together a curriculum vitae for his dog – detailing research interests such as “the benefits of abdominal massage for medium-sized canines” – and sent it off to a number of these journals, asking for a spot on their editorial boards.

She has also been asked to review papers. I suspect she’d be a harsh critic, despite being such a good dog, because usually when you put a paper on the floor they poop on it. And that’s good! Good doggie!

Comments

  1. mond says

    I can hear all the excuses now
    ‘Why hasn’t your research been peer reviewed if it is so good?’
    ‘Dog ate my paper (homework)’

  2. says

    The explosive proliferation of these scams is particularly unfortunate because there is a lot to be said for the open access model of scholarly publishing. These grifters damage the reputation of legitimate open access publishers and generally pollute the waters of science.

  3. handsomemrtoad says

    Well, if Incitatus could be Consul in ancient Rome….

    (Caligula’s horse.)

  4. chigau (違う) says

    I was meeting someone at the airport this morning.
    I witnessed three separate cases of dogs greeting people at Gate B.
    Doggies in the waiting area had humons with them; it was busy, so doggies were a bit spooked, when the doggies’ other humon came through the door it was like the climax of a Disney movie.

  5. blf says

    Ow. The cat just wacked me in the head. I didn’t know she could read.

    Yer beginning to catch on: You are the decorative pet, she is the megalomaniac.