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It is also not for me to say on behalf of Mr. Beall, but to note that Beall's list is solely a listing of "Potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers".<br>
<br>
<a href="http://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/" target="_blank">http://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Dana L. Roth<br>
Millikan Library / Caltech 1-32<br>
1200 E. California Blvd. Pasadena, CA 91125<br>
626-395-6423 fax 626-792-7540<br>
dzrlib@library.caltech.edu<br>
http://library.caltech.edu/collections/chemistry.htm<br>
________________________________________<br>
From: goal-bounces@eprints.org [goal-bounces@eprints.org] on behalf of Mauricio Tuffani [mauricio@tuffani.net]<br>
Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2015 11:26 AM<br>
To: Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)<br>
Subject: [GOAL] Re: Still on the scientific open access journals in Brazil - response to Mister Jeffrey Beall<br>
<br>
[Message sent again with the same text, but in appropriate format and<br>
with shorter links. Please disregard the previous e-mail. Sorry for<br>
the unformatting.]<br>
<br>
Dear GOAL members,<br>
<br>
Let me please introduce myself. I am the journalist Mauricio Tuffani,<br>
quoted by Mr. Jeffrey Beall and Mrs. Bianca Amaro. I am a science<br>
writer and collaborator of "Folha de S. Paulo"<br>
(http://www.folha.com.br), the largest Brazilian daily newspaper. I<br>
have a blog hosted by this newspaper<br>
(http://folha.com/mauriciotuffani).<br>
<br>
It is not for me to say on behalf of Mr. Beall, but I must clarify<br>
misconceptions related to my posts and articles.<br>
<br>
I am not a researcher, as correctly said Mrs. Amaro, and she is not<br>
the first person to highlight this fact. The same thing was said by<br>
the board of directors of the National Institute for Space Research<br>
(INPE), which in 1989 I accused of defrauding the Amazon deforestation<br>
estimates. In the following year, the institute recognized its "small<br>
error" of about 50% and fired the coordinator of that work.<br>
<br>
And so it has been all these years.<br>
<br>
I would like to clarify that I have admiration for the Open Access .<br>
However, I am a journalist, and it is my duty to point out distortions<br>
that are of public interest.<br>
<br>
And there have been many distortions in the Brazilian academic<br>
production in recent years. While the number of published articles<br>
nearly quadrupled since 2000 (http://rs.gs/ldB), their relative impact<br>
to the world stagnated in the same period (http://rs.gs/jC2).<br>
<br>
Here in Brazil is very common to opt for quantitative growth believing<br>
that later will be possible to increase the quality. Because of this<br>
frequent illusion the country has mountains of waste in its economy,<br>
education, culture and other fields such as science.<br>
<br>
In Brazilian science and graduate education this quantitative growth<br>
without attention to quality involves several activities. Academic<br>
publishing is one of them, and within there is Open Access.<br>
<br>
The common point of all my posts indicated by Mr. Beall is the fact<br>
that poor quality journals have been accepted in the Qualis database,<br>
of CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education<br>
Personnel), of the Ministry of Education.<br>
<br>
Unlike what said Mrs. Bianca Amaro, I do not criticize "the use of<br>
this database for evaluation of Brazilian science in graduate<br>
programs." I just reported that the Qualis database accepts predatory<br>
journals (http://rs.gs/f8c).<br>
<br>
And I have reported this in all my posts highlighting clarifications as follows:<br>
<br>
"Both in the online open access, with fees paid by authors, as in the<br>
traditional model maintained by annual subscriptions or fees per<br>
article download from the Internet, the reputable journals take months<br>
or even over a year to review and accept articles, or rejected them.<br>
Accused of prioritizing minimizing costs and maximizing profits, the<br>
"predatory publishers" not only reduce to a few weeks the acceptance<br>
of articles, but are less selective and rigorous in this process."<br>
<br>
Mr. Jeffrey Beall's message header "Open Access in Brazil" was in<br>
fact too generic, but made no mistake. I have often received<br>
information that good Brazilian OA journals —which really want to<br>
build the golden road quoted by Mrs. Amaro— are losing the preference<br>
of researchers to predatory journals.<br>
<br>
I do not have metrics to show this preference for predatory journals,<br>
but I could show that more than 200 of them were accepted by Qualis,<br>
bringing consequences that come to be ridiculous (http://rs.gs/L9y) or<br>
anecdotal (http://rs.gs/z3b).<br>
<br>
Perhaps M r s. Amaro does not know this situation —and I do not know<br>
if she ought to know it— but those who should know it act like they<br>
did not know: CAPES, CNP q (National Council for Scientific and<br>
Technological Development), state funding agencies and universities.<br>
<br>
I am very glad that this issue has been brought to this discussion<br>
group. Sometimes problems of Brazilian science have been resolved "<br>
with a little help from" its friends outside Brazil. It happened, for<br>
example, with the fraudulent estimate of Amazon deforestation to which<br>
I referred at the beginning of this message.<br>
<br>
If the growing garbage from predatory journals in Brazil continue to<br>
be ignored, it will become much larger than the bucolic "golden road<br>
in the country" glorified by Mrs. Amaro.<br>
<br>
With my due respect for her opinion, I think her overreaction to the<br>
generic header of Mr. Beall's message is actually a disregard of a<br>
serious threat to the Open Access in Brazil. This threat is the<br>
inclusion of predatory journals in Qualis supported by the code of<br>
silence around this issue in the Brazilian academia.<br>
<br>
( I know that I stretched too much what I had to say, but I can not<br>
resist sharing the following. I received right now a message sent by a<br>
full professor. He criticizes me for the inclusion of a journal on my<br>
list of "predatory Qualis ". And this journal says on its website: "21<br>
day rapid review process with international peer-review<br>
standards".[http://rs.gs/wcS])<br>
<br>
Thank you for your attention.<br>
<br>
***********************************<br>
Maurício Tuffani<br>
Journalist, science writer<br>
São Paulo, SP, Brazil<br>
Mobile: +55 11 99164-8443<br>
Phone: +55 11 2366-9949<br>
http://folha.com/mauriciotuffani<br>
mauricio@tuffani.net<br>
**********************************<br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
GOAL mailing list<br>
GOAL@eprints.org<br>
http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/goal<br>
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