Pig might fly but ‘science’ publisher’s claims don’t

A U.S. court has ordered the world’s biggest fake science publisher — a company that accepted a ridiculous paper on flying pigs submitted by this newspaper — to stop its “deceptive” practices.

OMICS Group, based in India, claims to run more than 700 online research journals and 3,000 academic conferences a year.

It spams scientists almost daily with demands for papers — then charges upwards of US$1,000 to publish them. And it will print anything, charging high fees to help young academics caught in the publish-or-perish system.

Now a U.S. District Court in Nevada has issued an injunction at the request of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The injunction tells OMICS journals and their affiliate Conference Series to straighten up.

This is not, however, a ruling that OMICS broke the law.

Judge Gloria Navarro makes a series of damning observations about OMICS in her injunction, including:

“Defendants engaged in probable misrepresentations regarding journal publishing,” including false claims to do peer review, and using names of “purported” editors who in fact are not involved at all;

“Defendants sent out email solicitations on behalf of academics without their permission.”

“The evidence produced by the FTC indicates that Defendants deceptively fail to disclose publishing fees.”

“The FTC has also submitted evidence demonstrating that Defendants misrepresent the ‘impact factor’ of their journals (i.e. the number of citations in other reputable journals).” A fake impact factor makes a journal look important when in fact no one reads it.

“The evidence produced by the FTC demonstrates that Defendants engaged in probable misrepresentations regarding their conferences,” such as advertising that famous scientists were speakers at a conference when in fact they were not even present.

Navarro adds: “Absent such an injunction, the Court finds it likely that Defendants will continue to engage in deceptive practices.”

It’s a victory, the FTC says in a press released titled “FTC Halts the Deceptive Practices of Academic Journal Publishers.” OMICS can operate, but it has now been severely restricted in claiming its journals are peer-reviewed, which is an essential feature of all academic publishing. It also has to stop advertising editorial boards that don’t actually exist. It must also show all fees clearly and conspicuously.

But somehow, the spam offers keep flowing. The injunction was issued on Sept. 29, though only announced recently by the FTC. Since then, OMICS keeps plugging dubious academic ventures.

On Oct. 17, the company invited “Dr. Thomas Spears” of this newspaper to be a speaker a conference on reproductive biology, in Vienna. (Most OMICS conferences turn out to be small sessions in a single hotel room, costing participants about $1,000 US. Participants then tell their universities they have given speeches to an important international symposium, hoping to get tenure or promotion.)

An OMICS journal came fishing the same day for Spearsian research in proteomics, boasting about the strict peer review and stellar editorial board. It makes no disclosure of fees.

Last fall, this newspaper exposed OMICS for publishing fabricated papers and making them look legitimate. The group expanded into Canada last year, taking over at least two Canadian publishing houses.

We reached out to OMICS for a response, but it had not immediately replied by Thursday afternoon.

The FTC launched separate legal action against OMICS Group in 2016, alleging deceptive practices. It has not yet come to trial.

The FTC says OMICS companies “deceptively claim that their journals provide authors with rigorous peer review and have editorial boards made up of prominent academics when in fact, many articles are published with little to no peer review and many individuals represented to be editors have not agreed to be affiliated with the journals.”

“The FTC also alleges that, to promote their scientific conferences, the defendants deceptively use the names of prominent researchers as conference presenters, when in fact many of those researchers had not agreed to participate in the events.”

The FTC has three powers: It can levy fines, once a judge has ruled in its favour; it can get permanent injunctions limiting what a company does; and it can freeze a company’s assets.