Rectors’ predatory publishing points to a deeper malaise

Researchers based at Russian institutions are more likely to publish in predatory journals if their university leader already does so, according to new analysis, writes Dalmeet Singh Chawla for Chemistry World.

The authors of a study analysed the work of 1,386 rectors – the most senior officials at Russian universities – over a 10-year period and found that 149 officials had published in journals classified as potentially predatory in another study. What’s more, the rectors found to have been publishing in predatory journals had been doing so for an average of eight years, the study found.

According to Alexander Nozik, a physicist at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, one of the biggest problems in Russian academia is that there is a split between trained scientists and administrative staff. The latter, Nozik says, are appointed to high-level positions based on political criteria rather than the merit of their science. It is particularly problematic that it is so difficult to measure the value of science robustly, making it even harder to judge academics, he adds.
Full report on the Chemistry World site