2017-07-24

Peer Review may be problematic, but it’s not this bad….

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

by Neil Godfrey

Jim West, a biblical studies pastor whose name sometimes appears in publications alongside the likes of Thomas L. Thompson and Niels Peter Lemche, and who also runs a blog that I follow for its occasional titbits of news on recent publications, did not earn his academic qualifications at an accredited university, if I understand correctly, and periodically rails against accreditation itself. In a recent post he also attacks “scientific journals” for accepting a bogus paper for publication and uses this as an opportunity to rail against the value of peer review.

Don’t be misled, however. The article to which he refers is discussing makes clear are “predatory publishers” — that is, scam publishers who are not serious academic publishers at all but the same sort of scams as you get in your email from Nigerian bankers offering you millions from lost accounts, etc.

A list of these predatory journal titles is kept at Beall’s List of Predatory Journals and Publishers. They prey on the new academics, still wet behind their ears and eager to get published. — Or they prey on old academics like Jim West who isolates himself from standards of accreditation etc and is so keeps himself out of the loop, it seems.

The point is, don’t let anyone think that a bogus paper being published by a “scientific journal” that is actually a “predatory” title is kind of evidence, for or against, peer review. These publishers in all likelihood don’t have peer review at all — or lie if they say they do — and probably don’t even bother to have anyone read papers that they publish.

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2 thoughts on “Peer Review may be problematic, but it’s not this bad….”

Pingback: Peer Review may be problematic, but it’s not this bad…. @neilgodfrey Vridar | Talmidimblogging
Neil Godfrey says:

2017-07-26 00:56:03 GMT+0000 at 00:56

Jim West has proven himself as good as a Breitbart reporter: http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2017/07/25/scientific-journals-accept-prank-star-wars-themed-paper/

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