NeuroLogica Blog » Open Access Predatory Journals

"The world of academia needs to recognize that charlatans, con-artists, and pseudoscientists are constantly trying to work their way through the gates. The scam that is CAM has largely succeeded, to the shame of academic medicine. They need to spend more resources on the type of quality control that will maintain the integrity of science and academia in the face of this intrusion. At the very least they should support those few academics who recognize the problem and make fighting pseudoscience, and promoting the public understanding of science, their specialty.

It is never going to be easy to stand firm against vested interests that have a lot of money to make or lose based on the acceptance of their pseudoscience. They are relentless in promoting their brand, lobbying for favorable regulations, and doing everything they can to acquire the trappings of legitimacy. To the extent that they do, however, they threaten academic legitimacy itself.

To the extent that predatory journals succeed, and silence their critics, they will dilute quality science in a sea of bad and bogus science. The ability for the scientific process to distinguish what is real from what is fake will be compromised. Entire fields of fake science will be able to thrive, and we will lose the ability to tell the difference."