Here’s something we haven’t seen before: A journal is asking tipsters to pay a fee to investigate a paper.
After receiving a tip of our own about this new requirement, we reached out to Educational Research International, and received this response:
We have received many fake complaints /cases and they have wasted the time of our inquiry committee members.
So last year it was decided to get deposit a fee of USD200 to conduct an inquiry. If the complaint will proved by petitioner the deposit will be returned from the amount of fine paid guilty (author).
We know journals and publishers spend lots of time investigating complaints about papers, but come on — who thought this was a good idea? And somehow, it appears as if the journal will will then levy a “fine” against any authors found to have committed misconduct. How is that going to work, exactly?
We should note that ERInt is published by SAVAP International, which is on Jeffrey Beall’s list of “potential, possible, or probable” predatory publishers.
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No story here. Suckerbait behaving like suckerbait.
This is a perfect example of the trend …money drives the research.
Give us money and we will attempt to validate (as apposed to “falsify”) your premise.
Now we are seeing money as the motivator both from the initiation ($200 deposit) and reward if the allegations can be substantiated …which could be in the thousands in fines.
See …? There becomes a financial incentive to confirm …rather than a scientific inquiry to try and falsify the hypothesis (accusation).
All they have to do is look at the COPE flowcharts. If an allegation is made without documentation, you request it from the person raising the allegation. If it doesn’t show up, politely close the issue. If it does, evaluate it and act on it.