Academia’s Secret Black Market Explained

Update: My mistake in the video, Elsevier and the list of other orgs I mentioned are "publishers" not journals.

Follow me:
Behavioral Science Instagram: @petejudoofficial
Instagram: @petejudo
Twitter: @petejudo
LinkedIn: Peter Judodihardjo

Good tools I actually use:

[samryan]

Seriously, this is nuts. 11k papers that were "peer reviewed" were retracted recently.

You are doing a great job of educating folks on this issue!!

[GiuseppeBertini]

Careful Pete! (7:15) Elsevier, Oxford, Springer, Taylor & Francis, etc., are NOT journals; they are publishers.

[davidbrook]

In my recent experience, publishers have started to emphasize that once the article is accepted, the author list cannot be changed. Now I understand why

[caiparry-jones]

Cost of adding an extra author to your paper: Nil
Value of being an author: Keeps your career alive

Changing the system so the above isn't true is the only long term fix for this issue.

[drmadjdsadjadi]

As a former editor of four different journals over the past 30 years, we have always had a policy that all authors must be listed at time of submission. We have never allowed the addition of any authors after acceptance as a change of authorship would be grounds for revoking the acceptance. I am shocked that other journals allowed this.

[itsgonnabeanaurfromme]

And here I am taking months to get actual research published...

[matthewkott]

As a journal editor, I was already approached by a Russia-based paper mill years ago. They offered several incentives, cash sums for papers, bonuses for speed and volume. They would even provide the peer reviewers, to make the process look legit on the system. I turned the offer down, but I wonder how many of my peers could not resist the temptation to make a quick buck (editors' remuneration is not usually more than a small lump sum stipend, if that).

[ShaktiChaturvedi]

So I used to work in corporate industry research, where all the focus was on being first to market with some relevant number. I could not stand it and I came to academia, guess who wears a dunce cap all the time now ! Thanks, I will share this with my family so they can understand how shady and murky academic publishing is. Its like nothing should be falsiable and you should get everything correct on first try or the funding or scholarship goes into the air. I have felt extremely mentally stressed, comparable to my corporate job where I was doing 10-11 hours for 5 days a week on stupid deadlines. The only thing I feel at times has changed for me, is that I set deadlines now. But with this whole, line goes up, number goes up approach even prevailing in academia. Maybe even that optimism will go away. Still thank you Pete :) keep up the great work.

[danderight]

How in the world does someone think to get away with publishing two academic articles a week? I understand the unscrupulous will find ways to cheat, but to do it so clumsily? This is like a minimum wage earner robbing a bank, then returning to work in a Rolls Royce and not expecting suspicion!

[sjpandolph]

As a practicing physician, my patients are being deeply harmed by this academic behavior. I can no longer trust what is being published to treat patients.

[benzbubblecat]

as a researcher, it's honestly exhausting to think about how much of a burden honesty is. We spend a year or more of intense effort on a paper, while these psychopaths can just buy them with cash or fabricate them and the result looks the same on our CVs.

[TheZeemo]

“Not like rubbish no name journals “ at this point with all the stuff you’ve been revealing my trust for reputable journals is starting to feel the same.

[bassetts]

We put so much faith in journals and their peer-review processes, it's hard to think about that faith being taken advantage of like this.

[DandoPorsaco-hozs]

Trustworthiness of Academia? Almost zero after I did my PhD in science.

[GreenRexker]

I'm stunned you can apparently submit to a "good" journal, and the standards are so lax that you can pull off all this craziness.

If you were forced to have a 20 minute phone call with a subject matter expert discussing the paper before submitting, it would massively cut down on this fraud. And it wouldn't cost the journal that much to implement.

The fact that scientists allow journals to have these low standards brings their occupation into disrepute.

[matthewholt]

As a phd student this is just terrifying. Thanks for sharing... ?

[ΓιάννηςΜατθαιουδάκης]

great job. economics field also follows similar practices. an lse professor re-run the tests for many famous economics papers and found data manipulation but i cant remember the title of his article.

[guard]

I'm glad you're bringing attention to this problem.

[Zaguzah]

10:47 LOL at the Paper Name Generator!™ 😂

[LanceHKW]

In the past I could do research on any topic and feel informed. Now, unless my expertise is in the subject I'm unsure if I can trust what I am reading.