Fraudulent Journals: Malaysia Is Ranked No. 5 in the Worid!!

 

Malaysian academics form a large chunk of those whose works were published in more than 300 “fraudulent journals” found in a respectable global citation database used to gauge tertiary institutions worldwide in annual rankings (MalaysiaNow, 14 Feb 2021).

Fraudulent journals, also known as “predatory journals”, are publications lacking in research quality and with questionable content, which are often liberal in accepting articles without scrutiny, and in most cases, for a fee.

A total of 324 such journals published from across the world have been found to have infiltrated Scopus, a Netherlands-based global citation database made up of more than 30,000 journals covering life sciences, social sciences, physical sciences and health sciences. The revelation, besides renewing a debate on the quality of research work by Malaysian universities, could also call into question the annual global rankings of universities.

At least two major organisations, Times Higher Education and QS, rely heavily on data from Scopus in publishing their annual rankings of universities worldwide. With more citations of its academics’ works in Scopus, a university stands a greater chance of boosting its global rankings.

The revelation is based on the work of two economists from the Czech Republic, Vit Machacek and Martin Srholec, who provided a country analysis of authors in questionable journals found in Scopus covering the period between 2015 and 2017.

While many of these authors come from countries with large populations such as India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Egypt, Malaysia’s listing among the top countries of origin may reflect badly on the quality of local academic work.

Machacek and Srholec’s study ranks Malaysia fifth among 20 countries considered as the biggest offenders in terms of predatory journals. Malaysia also appears in the top 20 lists for fraudulent work in three fields: health sciences, physical sciences, and social sciences, occupying the second place in the latter two.

The authors believe that predatory publication practices have apparently become a systemic problem at the national level in these countries, not limited to particular clusters.

Apart from increasing university enrolment or enhancing graduates’ employability, authorities should also focus on quality of research and the journals where academic work is published. A stricter screening and evaluation program on research are a must, unless we want to be the butt of jokes. But with mediocre professors this is tough. For a university to progress it must be on merit not some affirmative action program that has assistance to pass an exam, assistance to become a professor and assistance to publish articles. If the Ministry of Higher Education is serious to put things right, then have a Higher Education Commission manned by respectable people from around the world. But are we willing or serious? Not likely under the present Government. So, why complain about standards declining? More likely it is just another halal wayang kulit!!

 

Reference:

Malaysian academics among the top in ‘fraudulent’ publications found in global database, 14 Feb 2021, MalaysiaNow