[stanrivers]

“ It's to the point where every journal publisher and every editor will tell you, if they're being honest, that they have been and are continually being offered bribes. I would be very suspicious if someone tried to act shocked at the question, as if they'd never heard of such a thing. This is the state of scientific publishing in the 2020s, and we have to realize it. What we don't have to do is accept it.”

Well… then start reporting it with names publicly and to authorities…

[kashunstva]

> "every journal publisher and every editor will tell you..."

As much as I disdain academic fraud, I'm also deeply suspicious of statements about "every" editor. So I asked my wife, would is a lead editor of a major scientific journal. Her experience is nothing of the kind. Crappy paper-mill papers, plagiarism, etc.? Yes. Flat-out bribes, no.

[a123b456c]

Same. I serve in an editorial role for a top journal in my field. I know some foreign universities pay six-figure bonuses to faculty who publish in my journal. I have never been offered anything like a bribe.

To my ears, 'every' is hyperbole.

[sickofparadox]

3 or 4 cases of PHDs losing their positions because of this garbage would likely go a long way towards discouraging these frauds.

[ramraj07]

No it won’t - the vast majority of the perpetrators, perhaps rightfully, will think that doesn’t apply to their case because of their instititional politics.

[rcbdev]

Just look at all the high profile academic fraud cases in politics - Von Der Leyen (President of the EU Commission, plagiarized half of her dissertation, zero consequences), Aschbacher (Former Minister in Austria, her thesis was filled with grammatical and logical errors that would've shocked a high school teacher, gets to keep her PhD), Voshmgirs (Founding Director of the Institute for Cryptoeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics, the only one who might actually lose her PhD because of this)

As long as the general public does not care nothing will change.

[nativeit]

> And don't get the idea that it's just Hindawi - how could it be? MDPI journals are mixed up in this, De Gruyter, IMR, AIMS Press and many others as well. Any publisher where people are willing to look the other way.

[bowsamic]

Authorities? I don't think it's illegal. Also I get roughly 5 offers of "bribes" (of the "special issue" variety) a day, it's an overwhelming situation.

[albino_yak]

Exactly. Bribing editors to publish your paper is unethical, it's not breaking any laws. The word "bribe" the has the connotation of secretly paying government officials, which is illegal. But authors paying editors? I don't think that's legally viewed as any different for scientific publications than it is for fiction, where pay-to-publish is an accepted practice. (Disclaimer - IANAL)

[6510]

Take the money and publish a retraction disclosing why. ....what to do with the money?

[chaxor]

I know a lab that tried to publish names along with scores for the likelihood that they were h-index hacking. It's a very popular thing to do for more well known scientists.

Unfortunately legal teams were very discouraging to do so and publishing that type of thing is hard, so it didn't happen.