We know that we face many challenges in the scholarly community including (but not limited to):
- Predatory publishers
- Citation cartels
- Paper mills
- Buying/selling authorships
- Retractions taking too long
- Editors being paid (bribed) to work with unethical stakeholders
- The Open access business model being abused
- AI generated content making life easier for unethical stakeholders
… but what can we do about it?
To be honest, hardly anything.
Against the tsunami that we are being subjected to, any wins we have are just a drop in the ocean. It is a numbers gave and the legitimate/ethical side of our sector cannot compete with the deluge that we are being subjected to.
These (many) unethical operators are just laughing at us, and shaking off any wins we have by simply carrying on with what they are doing.
It is difficult to see what we can do as a community as, unlike many other sectors, there is not an overarching organization that has any real teeth.
Should there be (yes, is the answer)? How can we achieve that? I have no idea.