Probe cheers exposer of bogus journals

VANCOUVER — The association representing Canadian university faculty has launched an investigation to determine whether Thompson Rivers University has violated the academic freedom of economics professor Derek Pyne.

Pyne was suspended without pay in July by administrators at the Kamloops university. His pay was restored in August.

He had gained attention for his peer-reviewed research into the way faculty in his own department advanced their careers by publishing in deceptive academic journals, also known as “predatory” publications.

The investigating committee of the Canadian Association of University Teachers will be chaired by Mark Mac Lean, a University of B.C. mathematics professor and former president of the UBC faculty association. Carla Graebner, a Simon Fraser University data librarian, will also serve on the committee.

“Professor Pyne published an article exploring the use of socalled ‘predatory publishers’ by faculty members and administrators in the school of business and economics at Thompson Rivers. He says he was subsequently targeted by the administration in violation of his academic freedom,” the association said.

The faculty group’s involvement in the case is a “positive development,” Pyne said by email. He has been banned from the Thompson Rivers campus, except in a few circumstances.

There has been a dramatic rise around the world in such deceptive academic journals and conferences, which offer to publish or present scholars’ papers for significant fees, without putting their work through the rigour of peer review by fellow experts or other checks for validity.

The debate over predatory publication often revolves around which academics are genuinely duped by the deceptive journals and conferences and which academics take advantage of them to advance their careers.