Advarsel mod kongresser

Interessekonflikter: ingen

Blandt de mange invitationer til kongresser kommer mange med e-mail fra OMICS Group Conferences. En nylig invitation havde som (angivelig) medunderskriver en god kollega fra Boston. Jeg spurgte ham derfor, hvad han havde med denne kongres at gøre. Her er hans svar:

»I was recruited for the editorial board of one of their journals and for involvement with this conference and saw that a friend that I respect was involved. However, I became suspicious when I got similar invitations from omics journals and conferences far outside my expertise. I have since realized that this is at best a quasi-scientific organization and junk science publisher. I have spoken with my friend about this and he had independently come to the same conclusion. I have sought to disassociate myself from all involvement with this group, but their response was that they did not think that they could remove my name from advertising before the conference. It does not appear that my friend and I have much recourse given that we did agree to be on the organizing committee«.

Når jeg selv fra starten var mistænksom, skyldes det, at jeg som redaktør af tidsskriftet Environmental Health holder øje med open-access-publicering på internettet. Bibliotekaren Jeffrey Beall fra University of Colorado har samlet en liste over »predatory« internetforlæggere. OMICS Publishing Group er en af dem. Forlaget har allerede startet 200 tidsskrifter, og ved masse-e-mail har OMICS rekrutteret omkring 20.000 forskere som medlem af deres redaktionskomiteer. Således har OMICS-tidsskriftet »Molecular Biology« en editorial board med Peter Duesberg som medlem. Han er kendt som kontroversiel hiv-benægter, som mener, at aids ikke skyldes hiv. Komiteen omfatter også en vis Peter Uhnemann fra »Department of Oximology at Daniel-Duesentrieb Institute, Germany« (Daniel Düsentrieb er i Danmark kendt som Georg Gearløs).

Jeg har netop i dag fået endnu en invitation til OMICS' kongres, og min kollega er stadig medunderskriver.