Giving credit to papers published in a predatory journal will encourage others, erode credibility and confidence in scientific community, regulatory bodies
KARACHI: Pakistan Association of Medical Editors (PAME) has expressed serious concern on a decision taken by the PM&DC to give credit to authors who published their papers in a predatory journal which was not recognized by PM&DC Journals Evaluation Committee in 2018. The recent notification issued by the Registrar of PM&DC was discussed in detail at a meeting of PAME held at the offices of Journal of Pakistan Medical Association on November 20th which was attended by Chief Editors of JPMA, Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences and Editorial Board members of various other journals.
After detailed deliberations, certain decisions were taken and then they were shared with others Executive Committee Members of PAME for discussion through e mail to solicit their views. It was the unanimous view of the PAME members that regulatory bodies should be approached and requested to take stringent measures to check mushroom growth of these predatory journals most of which are being published from Punjab. In some cases, they have managed declaration with similar names to leading biomedical Impact Factor Journals and then fleece the authors, trap them and promise quick publication charging huge amount. The authors who get their manuscripts published in these journals are fully aware of these unethical publication practices, pay huge sums for quick publication just to avoid peer review, hence do not deserve any sympathy.
After discussion which took almost over three weeks, the observations of the meeting have been shared with the President of Pakistan Medical & Dental Council through a letter sent to him signed by President and General Secretary of PAME. The letter reads:
´The above decision of the PM & DC is of great concern to the PAME members as it is equivalent to promoting questionable publications through the predatory journals in Pakistan. It also opens the doors to grant similar credit to the authors who publish their scientific articles in other predatory journals. In this context it may be mentioned that it is the sole responsibility of the researchers to make sure that submission is made to the recognized medical journals that follow all standard editorial processes for the publication including stringent peer review process after initial triage. The members of the PAME make a request to the Executive body of the Pakistan Association of the Medical Editors (PAME) to deliberate upon this issue and approach the Pakistan Medical & Dental Council to clarify as to Why such a decision is taken?. It will be pertinent to ask PM & DC to share the minutes of the said meeting to find out:
- The agenda of the meeting.
- Who approached the PM&DC about the issue of giving credit to the published articles?
- What was the plea in this context? It will be pertinent to mention here that this journal was not approved by the PM&DC Journals Evaluation Committee in 2018 as it failed to practice any peer review system before accepting manuscripts for publication which is essential as per policies of both PM&DC and HEC.
- On what grounds was the matter of giving credit discussed? Is there any clause of the regulations by PM&DC?
- On what grounds the decision of giving credit to the researchers was taken, and by how many members?
- What is the policy of PM&DC to stop the Pakistani predatory journals?
The issue of the recent rise in the number of predatory journals from Pakistan and such a malpractice negatively impacts the reputation of the Pakistani scientific community, the research environment of the country, and student learning are worth considering as faculty getting promotions against such scientific articles may not be competent to render education. PAME members suggested that the regulatory bodies should adopt concrete strategies to implement the meaningful control over the journal publishers to deter such malpractices. This may be done by enforcing publication integrity policies with appropriate disciplinary actions. This approach is much needed to satisfy the national and international concerns regarding the recent rise in the number of predatory journals from Pakistan, as expressed by the WHO. It is extremely important to safeguard the image and credibility of PM&DC.”
PAME members believe that it is important to expose all those who patronize, promote and support these predatory journals. At the same time efforts should be made to encourage, facilitate those journals who follow proper peer review system, publication ethics to help improve their standard so that researchers from Pakistan can publish their research work since publication overseas is very expensive and many of the authors cannot afford it.
PAME has been requesting the regulatory bodies for the last many years to be vigilant but unfortunately some of these predatory journals somehow managed to get recognition from Higher Education Commission, how it is still mystery. More recently one such predatory journal approved by HEC in Y Category mentioned the name of Prof. Akhtar Sherin a distinguished Editor as its Chief Editor which he denied of having any association with this journal. Similarly another distinguished Editor from Saudi Arabia, Prof. Ahmed Bader was listed as a member of Editorial Board by this journal, he also denied and both of them have written to the HEC and brought this unethical practice to their notice. When these predatory journals applied for recognition to PM&DC, they were asked to present peer review reports of the papers published but they failed to satisfy the committee, hence their cases were not recommended once again.
It may be mentioned here that WHO officials have already expressed concern on the growth of predatory medical journals published from India and Pakistan. If the regulatory bodies failed to check this menace and intellectual corruption, unethical publication practices, it will bring bad name to Pakistan and it may have serious consequences for the scientific community, regulatory bodies and the standard peer reviewed journals published from Pakistan.
