“They cheated us, it was a fatal mistake. And now they have been fully charged. ” When a British suggest -name company knocked on the door of Joan Hortalà interested in the magazine Economy Notebooksthis professor at the University of Barcelona saw the opportunity he was looking for to give his publication. The magazine had prestige, but a greater expansion in the Anglo -Saxon world, as assured that unknown but promising company called Oatext, it was just what I needed.
Hortalà and his team decided to sell. Just a couple of tens of thousands of euros, no one was going to retire from that, but Notebooks I could give one more step. And in addition, according to the agreement they would maintain editorial control. It never happened. The next day to complete the transaction, Oatext He began to perform a series of bad practices that were not agreed. Hortalà lost control of the magazine, but the magazine did not correspond to him letting him go. Kidnapping His name, which followed, Keep still todayfeeding the prestige of Notebooks As theoretical director, together with that of a deceased person, José Ramón Lasuén, former president. No effect have had the formal requirements that have sent to Oatext to withdraw them from the web.
Notebooks It is one of the more than 30 magazines – varios of them Spanish – that documentaries Emilio Delgado and Alberto Martín have detected that they have been victims of ghost companies such as Oatext or Oxbridge Publishing House, another British firm. Companies out of nowhere, unknown in the sector, which buy well -located publications in the rankings to get money: the movement that follows the purchase is to establish if it did not exist – or multiply if it was already – the price to publish, eliminate filters from Quality, significantly upload the number of items that are published and start billing.
These two companies offer clear examples of the practices that extend through the sector. Opaque signatures, without known owner or a clearly defined activity – no of the two It offers own information on their respective websites – that buy magazines and try to make them profitable to the cost. Oxbridge may be paradigmatic in this way of acting.
It is not even clear to what this firm is dedicated, whose name appears associated with several operations for the sale of publications, according to research such as Delgado and Martín or, before, before, Magazine leak: the case of Artseduca and other Spanish social science magazines, Made by Álvaro Cabezas, Rafael Repiso and Ángel M. Delgado. Its seal appeared on the websites of different publications, but it is no longer there and the company argues that “never” has owned any magazine, as a spokesman explained to this newspaper. According to its version, exposed in brief emails that leave without answering the direct questions raised, the company only offers services related to the editorial scientific world (web accommodation, administrative efforts or related to the classification of magazines, SEO positioning or review management in pairs, etc.).
This position is contradictory with past versions of its own website – which has undergone remarkable changes in the last year, especially following the publication of the Delgado and Martín report – or even with the information that reference websites in the sector, such as The ISSN or Crossref portal, which at some point in recent years identifies Oxbridge as the editor of several magazines. Oxbridge has gone from describing herself as a “leader and independent editorial of academic magazines “to” We do not exercise editors, but we provide services that help magazines in their management. ”
Little, but Oxbridge answers. Oatext, the company that acquired Economy Notebooks And that appears as an intermediary in other operations, he has not responded to the requests of this newspaper regarding why they maintain the names of the previous editorial team as the current responsible, when they have been requested by certified mail to withdraw them. Nor other specific questions, such as how many magazines they manage or why since their publications acquire them, they change the profile and nationality of the authors who publish, giving preponderance to Asian scientists.
The company appears in the Beall’s list of predatory publisherscompanies that have landed in the scientific publication sector with the sole objective of doing business and responding to a modus operandi Very specific. Oxbridge does not appear on that list.
Out of the ‘raks’
Hortalà and company not only They stole the magazine; They also loaded it along the way. Oatext’s bad praxis with Notebooks –He flooded with doubtful articles signed by Asian authors, investigations that refer to the factories of Papers– Suspicions began to raise among the companies that regulate the scientific editorial market and decide the prestige of the magazines, a fundamental element in the sector to attract authors. Notebooks He went from having more than 50% of articles signed by Spanish authors to 6%. National researchers were replaced by Indonesians, Irakíes, Vietamites and Saudi.
Finally, only one year after the British company bought Notebooksthe publication was expelled from the main Rankings Its (scientific) value is for the soils. The work of the first years of Lasuén and after Hortalà, with their respective teams, has only served for someone, allegedly, has done business.
The consequences of this type of practices affect the managers of the magazines, but also the researchers and scientists who intended to publish in them or even have worked altruistically. It happened to Roberto Moreno López, professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Castilla-La Mancha, with the magazine Communicate. The case of this publication may well be the example of the damage that these types of companies cause to scientists.
Communicate He was classified as the second most prestigious magazine in the world In his field, a milestone for a Spanish publication. Publishing in it or participating as a guest editor for some number, a common practice in the sector, was subject to desire. Moreno had the commitment to participate as a guest editor, but in the middle of the process the magazine changed hands.
“From there he began to twist,” recalls a process that describes as “unpleasant.” “We never had any kind of feedback. We were waiting for indications to establish evaluation criteria, the basic issues to maintain the magazine’s standards. But the months passed, we did not receive any answer and we started to make ourselves. ” As Hortalà and the notebook team, when they found that they had lost editorial control over their own magazine, they demanded that their names stop appearing. They were more successful, the new owners heard and separated the three affected people of the magazine. Of the previous owners, with the professor of the University of Huelva Ignacio Aguaded at the head, he never learned again. This newspaper has tried to contact Aguaded, but has not obtained an answer.
Start from scratch
“We just want them to forget about us,” says Hortalà, whose name still supports, against his will, the magazine he founded and with which he now has no relationship. The plan was not that when the transfer was made, says the teacher. “We agreed that they would do the commercialization, but the Drafting Council and everything else was as it was. They would send us the articles they would receive for our valuation. ” They, the previous team, would be the editorial and Oatext responsible would be dedicated to expanding the magazine in the Anglo -Saxon world, as it appeared in a list of commitments acquired by the new property that were never fulfilled.
This list includes a series of clarifications that sources of the sector qualify as strangers. As read in the text, the company informs the previous editors that “for the moment” the OAT name would not appear on the website of Notebooks And neither will “changes in the web section will be introduced [que informa] about the details of the magazine ”. That would be for later. It has not yet happened. The website Notebooks It does not give any track of who belongs while intending to understand that it maintains the previous editorial team. The same happens with Communicate: No trace of the owner.
In any case, for the previous editors, the work of years, the efforts to locate the magazine in international ranks to make it an attractive container so that the researchers want to publish their articles, have gone to the fret and have had to start from scratch With another publication, Economy and Finance Magazine. But starting from below in the scientific publishing world is a small nightmare. As the magazine does not yet have what is known as an impact factor, the indicator that establishes the importance of a publication and by extension, costs to attract prestigious authors. And as they publish a few authors among the most cited, it is difficult for him to acquire that prestige that allows him to place in the rankings. The fish that bite the tail.
“Most of the people who are making university curriculum do not publish with us,” admits Hortalà. “It costs a lot to start again, and also with the shadow of these people [OAText y Cuadernos de Economía] on. It is a very complex, complicated, hard process that demands a lot of patience and work, ”he says tired. But surely he will go ahead.
Everyone loses
The loss of a magazine not only affects the researchers involved or those who aspire to publish in it. As the sector works in Spain, the damage is for the entire public sector, according to Delgado, of the UGR. “The magazines were being edited by universities (Fonseca, Artseduca, Economy Notebooks), scientific or professional societies (Sports Psychology Magazine, Communicate) or companies (The information professional, Property of a company controlled by Félix de Moya), and are really supported with public funds. All members of their editorial committees are university professors or researchers from public research centers. It is they who support not only the edition but the peer evaluation. If you add that those who publish are in almost 100% scientists who work in public institutions, we are selling to ghost or predatory publishers all the accumulated value of years of work done by the scientific and professionals communities who endured those magazines, ”he illustrates.
At the particular level, as Delgado explains, scientific journals are held in large part with the selfless work of scientists, who voluntarily collaborate or even evaluate and correct the articles before their publication. It is the anclite revision by pairs (Peer Review), which feeds a millmillonarium business. To Moreno López and his two companions the failed attempt to collaborate with Communicate It cost him money, according to the teacher.
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