Fake open-access journals flourish in India: Science - The Hindu

"In October 4 paper in Science based on a 'sting' operation by John Bohannon, science writer at Harvard University reveals the pitfalls in open access scientific publishing. Bohannon has done for selected open access scientific journals what Alan Sokal did to academic journal Social Text. Submitting a paper outlining (entirely made up results of) the anticancer properties of a chemical that had been extracted from a certain lichen to 304 open access journals, he found that the majority of them actually accepted the paper. 157 journals accepted the paper, 98 rejected it and of the remainder, 20 journals said the paper was still being reviewed and 29 journals appeared to be derelict. What is news for us is that about one-third of these (64 to be precise) were based in India! Of the 79 journals based in India that were tried, 64 accepted the paper and 15 rejected it. Bohannon writes that even while the editors and bank accounts are based in India, the companies that ultimately make a profit out of the business may be based in the U.S. or Europe. Some of the giants of scientific publishing — Kluwer, Elsevier and Sage owned some of the journals that accepted the paper. On being presented with the results of the 'sting' they have taken suitable action. Kluwer for instance, has closed down The Journal of Natural Pharmaceuticals ..."