This article was originally posted as a tweet, but we thought it was worth posting on this blog, in the hope that it will reach even more people.
Selling of authorships
It is easy to find adverts which are offering authorships for sale. What is a little unusual is to find the advert with the title of the paper and the journal where the article will be published, … and then to see the article in print. The header image shows two examples of this.
Journal of Energy Storage
The Journal of Energy Storage, an Elsevier journal, should (in our view) look into this issue, as they seem to have published two papers where the authors paid to be an author on the paper.
That is, an advert for the sale of authorships, for two papers, and the subsequent publication of those papers with the same exact titles in the Journal of Energy Storage.
We hope that the EiC (Luisa F. Cabeza) is aware of this and will take the appropriate action.
The two articles can be seen here:
Pubpeer
We note that these two articles have been mentioned on PubPeer. You can see the PubPeer entries here:
- Optimal economic scheduling of microgrids considering renewable energy sources based on energy hub model using demand response and improved water wave optimization algorithm
- Optimal dispatch of dynamic power and heat considering load management, water pump system, and renewable resources by grasshopper optimization algorithm
Our previous experience
In one of our previous lives, we have been EiC of a journal and if something like this happened (nothing like this happened, but things did), the EiC convened an independent committee to look at the issue and provide a recommendation.
Not saying this is what should happen here (every publisher will have slightly different SOP’s) but the fact that there was somebody offering authorships for a paper of this title and the fact that a paper appeared with this title must be enough to start an investigation? Indeed, such an investigation may have already started.
No assumption of guilt
We are not saying that the authors are guilty. Perhaps:
- They are totally innocent and this can be explained
- The authors have been duped and are, at best, naive
- One of the authors coerced (at least) one of the other authors
- … or some other explanation
Access to information
The journal will have access to things like:
- The peer review reports
- When authors were added/changed, and at one stage of the publication
- Acceptance from the author that they participated in a way that warrants being an author
- Access to the corresponding author
It is also possible to look at the history of the authors and, if the authors have published in other Elsevier journals, then they should be able to look at the history of those papers just to see if there are any worrying patterns.
Could we investigate ourselves?
We could investigate ourselves, but we don’t have the same access to information that the publisher/journal does so, we hope, that they will take the initiative.
Finally
Everything may be above board and the journal, EiC, authors etc. have nothing to answer here, but it does need looking at. If nothing else to protect the reputation of the publisher, the journal and the EiC. And also to take appropriate action should that be necessary.
Tweets which motivated this article
You can see the original Twitter posts from, @author_for_sale, on which this post is based here:
- https://twitter.com/author_for_sale/status/1697298062685642877
- https://twitter.com/author_for_sale/status/1697297679678628291