‘CRAP’ Paper Accepted for Publication

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Some of the most harmful lies are published by drug companies when they desceribe "side effects" They give a list of things like how a drug can cause muscle pain or weakness.. They say these can be very bad but they are rare and only affect a few patients. That is a lie. Side effects of some drugs can kill or disable patients. Religious publications are the exact opposite of scientific literature, but there is enormous profit from selling religious fables.
I am very curious about the tie to the Emirates. What is that?

aura dawn veirs of CA 6:02PM June 21, 2009

Your opening sentence implies that all open-access journals charge author fees. But it's not true that all do, and it's not even true that most do. Most charge no author fees at all. Details here: http://ur1.ca/5ryo
In fact, more subscription journals (by numbers and percentages) charge author fees than open-access journals. Details here: http://ur1.ca/5ryq
Two quick points: First, many well-respected, high-quality journals charge author fees. It's entirely compatible with rigorous peer review. Second, however, if author fees carry any risk of corrupting peer review, then the problem would be more widespread among subscription journals than open-access journals.
The Bentham affair is much more about low standards and deceptive practices than open access.

Peter Suber of ME 10:05AM June 18, 2009

What's worse, publishing junk for $800 or publishing known falsehoods that result in millions in revenue for the writers and their institutions?
Recent revelations about papers with made up data boosting industry profits and lining insider pockets show that even a good peer-reviewing can fail when the data is bad. And getting negative results published at all? Good luck. When it hurts business, it stands the big chance of never seeing the light of day -- even if the data is accurate. So much for healthcare outcomes=based guidelines because they are often based on crap from organizations that should be named CRAP.

Joe Says 7:03PM June 16, 2009