The Institute of Production Systems and Logistics (IFA) has also published articles in journals that have proven to be dubious from a retrospective point of view. After this became known, the IFA established internal processes to ensure that the respective providers were no longer used.
Predatory publishers are particularly criticized for accepting pseudoscientific contributions and publishing them as supposedly "peer-reviewed". Before the unscientific motivation of the providers became known, they were seen by the IFA as one of several possibilities to make relevant research results accessible to a broad international audience. However, the IFA and I would like to distance ourselves emphatically from the accusation of pseudoscientific contributions. The quality of the providers is not to be equated with the quality of the content and the general scientific claim of the contributions of the IFA, which are always checked in advance in internal review processes.
Nevertheless, I welcome the discussion that has been initiated and am aware of the need for action and the responsibility that goes with it. I share the view that Predatory Publishers are obviously a major problem for the entire scientific system and regret not having recognised this earlier and reacting accordingly. In order to be able to identify dubious providers more quickly in the future, a systematic evaluation system was set up at the IFA. In addition, a further discussion of possible solutions to the topic at various levels seems unavoidable.
20 July, 2018 Peter Nyhuis
