Alberto Martín
@albertomartin.bsky.social
Associate professor at University of Granada (Spain), Dept #InformationScience & #LibraryScience. Interested in #bibliometrics, #scholarlycommunication, #openscience.
Pinned
Alberto Martín
@albertomartin.bsky.social
· Jan 30
After discovering that well-regarded journals were being sold to little-known publishers, we decided to investigate. Sadly, it was exactly what it seemed. Our report is now live: Invasion of the journal snatchers: How indexed journals are falling into questionable hands doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
Este jueves estaré en Zaragoza debatiendo sobre cómo actuar frente a malas prácticas y fraude en la comunicación científica, con
@amdelvaz.bsky.social
, Iratxe Puebla y Reme Pérez, en la Asamblea Anual de la UNE. Será emitido: www.youtube.com/live/sljOPyB...
Primera pregunta: ¿Se quiere actuar?
@amdelvaz.bsky.social
, Iratxe Puebla y Reme Pérez, en la Asamblea Anual de la UNE. Será emitido: www.youtube.com/live/sljOPyB...
Primera pregunta: ¿Se quiere actuar?
November 10, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Este jueves estaré en Zaragoza debatiendo sobre cómo actuar frente a malas prácticas y fraude en la comunicación científica, con
@amdelvaz.bsky.social
, Iratxe Puebla y Reme Pérez, en la Asamblea Anual de la UNE. Será emitido: www.youtube.com/live/sljOPyB...
Primera pregunta: ¿Se quiere actuar?
@amdelvaz.bsky.social
, Iratxe Puebla y Reme Pérez, en la Asamblea Anual de la UNE. Será emitido: www.youtube.com/live/sljOPyB...
Primera pregunta: ¿Se quiere actuar?
In today’s pay-to-publish model where every paper lands somewhere, rejection just means another publisher profits. That's why publishers are building multi-tier journal ecosystems.
"Acquiring the Karger journals will provide OUP with many more downstream transfer destinations, helping OUP to publish more of the articles that get rejected by their higher impact journals."
Depressing assessment of the commercial strategy guiding academic publishing.
Depressing assessment of the commercial strategy guiding academic publishing.
OUP acquires Karger's long tail
Hello fellow journalologists,
newsletter.journalology.com
November 10, 2025 at 9:55 AM
In today’s pay-to-publish model where every paper lands somewhere, rejection just means another publisher profits. That's why publishers are building multi-tier journal ecosystems.
La Trahison des bases de données
October 27, 2025 at 10:48 PM
La Trahison des bases de données
Los tres trabajos con señales manifiestas de ser fraudulentos, que ya no están en la web de la revista, están indizados en Scopus 🤦
October 19, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Los tres trabajos con señales manifiestas de ser fraudulentos, que ya no están en la web de la revista, están indizados en Scopus 🤦
Aprovecho para recordar que mañana, Emilio Delgado López-Cózar y yo estaremos hablando de estos temas en la Universidad de Sevilla.
October 19, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Aprovecho para recordar que mañana, Emilio Delgado López-Cózar y yo estaremos hablando de estos temas en la Universidad de Sevilla.
Este mes se ha sabido que otra revista española, la Revista Electrónica de Ciencia Penal y Criminología, con una trayectoria de 26 años bajo la dirección de un profesor de Derecho Penal de la Universidad de Granada, también fue transferida a Oxbridge Publishing House. doi.org/10.21428/cb6...
Yet another problem for scholarly communication in criminology: The case of a Spanish journal turned into a paper mill
Founded in 1999, RECPC became one of the most influential Spanish-language journals in criminal law and criminology. After a 2024 change of management, articles of dubious authorship and quality linke...
doi.org
October 19, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Este mes se ha sabido que otra revista española, la Revista Electrónica de Ciencia Penal y Criminología, con una trayectoria de 26 años bajo la dirección de un profesor de Derecho Penal de la Universidad de Granada, también fue transferida a Oxbridge Publishing House. doi.org/10.21428/cb6...
Hoy una periodista científica ha escrito para preguntarnos si se podía fiar de un artículo publicado en una de las revistas vendidas a Oxbridge/OAText. Al mirarlo, comprobamos que se había publicado antes de la venta. El daño reputacional puede afectar retroactivamente.
October 14, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Hoy una periodista científica ha escrito para preguntarnos si se podía fiar de un artículo publicado en una de las revistas vendidas a Oxbridge/OAText. Al mirarlo, comprobamos que se había publicado antes de la venta. El daño reputacional puede afectar retroactivamente.
Reposted by Alberto Martín
🟢 Vos revues profanées
Des revues de référence qui se mettent à publier en masse des articles louches et à augmenter leur frais de publication ? Au moins sept revues françaises seraient passées aux mains d’obscurs éditeurs. On vous explique 👇
themeta.news/linvasion-de...
#VeilleESR
Des revues de référence qui se mettent à publier en masse des articles louches et à augmenter leur frais de publication ? Au moins sept revues françaises seraient passées aux mains d’obscurs éditeurs. On vous explique 👇
themeta.news/linvasion-de...
#VeilleESR
October 3, 2025 at 12:20 PM
🟢 Vos revues profanées
Des revues de référence qui se mettent à publier en masse des articles louches et à augmenter leur frais de publication ? Au moins sept revues françaises seraient passées aux mains d’obscurs éditeurs. On vous explique 👇
themeta.news/linvasion-de...
#VeilleESR
Des revues de référence qui se mettent à publier en masse des articles louches et à augmenter leur frais de publication ? Au moins sept revues françaises seraient passées aux mains d’obscurs éditeurs. On vous explique 👇
themeta.news/linvasion-de...
#VeilleESR
L’invasion des profanateurs de revue, par @lucileveissier.bsky.social dans @themeta.news
Merci de mettre en lumière ce phénomène. themeta.news/linvasion-de...
Merci de mettre en lumière ce phénomène. themeta.news/linvasion-de...
L’invasion des profanateurs de revue — TheMetaNews
Cet article est publié en partenariat avec l’association des responsables de l’information scientifique et technique des organismes de recherche français publics ou d’utilité publique (EPRIST) sous li...
themeta.news
October 3, 2025 at 4:18 PM
L’invasion des profanateurs de revue, par @lucileveissier.bsky.social dans @themeta.news
Merci de mettre en lumière ce phénomène. themeta.news/linvasion-de...
Merci de mettre en lumière ce phénomène. themeta.news/linvasion-de...
Sorpresa en una de las revistas vendidas: el equipo editorial de Profesional de la Información, borrado de la web en febrero (salvo el editor jefe), ha vuelto a aparecer tal como estaba a principios de año. ¿Lo saben las personas afectadas? revista.profesionaldelainformacion.com/index.php/EP...
October 2, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Sorpresa en una de las revistas vendidas: el equipo editorial de Profesional de la Información, borrado de la web en febrero (salvo el editor jefe), ha vuelto a aparecer tal como estaba a principios de año. ¿Lo saben las personas afectadas? revista.profesionaldelainformacion.com/index.php/EP...
El próximo 20 de octubre hablaremos con nuestros colegas del departamento de Comunicación Audiovisual y Publicidad de la Universidad de Sevilla, entre otras cosas, sobre venta de revistas, y revistas vendidas
September 29, 2025 at 1:18 PM
El próximo 20 de octubre hablaremos con nuestros colegas del departamento de Comunicación Audiovisual y Publicidad de la Universidad de Sevilla, entre otras cosas, sobre venta de revistas, y revistas vendidas
Truly grateful by the interest our presentation on stealth journal takeovers generated at the STI in Bristol last week. Thanks to everyone who approached me to discuss it during the conference! @stienid2025.bsky.social read the whole story at zenodo.org/records/1476... and zenodo.org/records/1521...
September 8, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Truly grateful by the interest our presentation on stealth journal takeovers generated at the STI in Bristol last week. Thanks to everyone who approached me to discuss it during the conference! @stienid2025.bsky.social read the whole story at zenodo.org/records/1476... and zenodo.org/records/1521...
First thing after the summer break: getting ready for Bristol, where I’ll present our work on stealth journal takeovers and their telltale signs at @stienid2025.bsky.social. Already available at doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
September 1, 2025 at 9:29 AM
First thing after the summer break: getting ready for Bristol, where I’ll present our work on stealth journal takeovers and their telltale signs at @stienid2025.bsky.social. Already available at doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
In a new Crossref Community post, I outline the unusual DOI management of the journal Profesional de la Información: despite being sold to OAText in late 2023, DOIs for its articles are still being registered by the former publisher. community.crossref.org/t/concerns-r...
Concerns regarding stealth journal transfers and DOI mismanagement
Concerns Regarding Stealth Journal Transfers and DOI Mismanagement Hello everyone, My name is Alberto Martín-Martín, and I’m a researcher in the field of bibliometrics and scholarly communication. A...
community.crossref.org
August 8, 2025 at 3:27 AM
In a new Crossref Community post, I outline the unusual DOI management of the journal Profesional de la Información: despite being sold to OAText in late 2023, DOIs for its articles are still being registered by the former publisher. community.crossref.org/t/concerns-r...
Highly relevant article by @reeserichardson.bsky.social et al., once again providing evidence that fraudulent publication practices are becoming increasingly sophisticated and coordinated. Publishing fraud is no longer just a "bad apple" issue, but a market that moves millions of $€£.
Today, our article "The entities enabling scientific fraud at scale are large, resilient, and growing rapidly" is finally published in PNAS. I hope that it proves to be a wake-up-call for the whole scientific community.
reeserichardson.blog/2025/08/04/a...
reeserichardson.blog/2025/08/04/a...
A do-or-die moment for the scientific enterprise
Reflecting on our paper “The entities enabling scientific fraud at scale are large, resilient, and growing rapidly”
reeserichardson.blog
August 5, 2025 at 6:47 AM
Highly relevant article by @reeserichardson.bsky.social et al., once again providing evidence that fraudulent publication practices are becoming increasingly sophisticated and coordinated. Publishing fraud is no longer just a "bad apple" issue, but a market that moves millions of $€£.
First they clone themselves (Nature X...), now they clone MDPI. The goal is to offer a tiered journal system that does not let manuscripts escape to other publishers' offerings. That would be like leaving money on the table.
New from The Strain Team:
🎊 Springer Nature Discovers MDPI 🎊
Springer Nature has spawned a copycat journal series called "Discover" mimicking #MDPI journal titles and citation behaviours. We even made a browser game to prove it (see 🔗).
Gross! 😀 1/n
#ResearchIntegrity #SciPub #AcademicSky
🎊 Springer Nature Discovers MDPI 🎊
Springer Nature has spawned a copycat journal series called "Discover" mimicking #MDPI journal titles and citation behaviours. We even made a browser game to prove it (see 🔗).
Gross! 😀 1/n
#ResearchIntegrity #SciPub #AcademicSky
Spinger Nature Discovers MDPI – The Strain on Scientific Publishing
Home page for the paper ‘The Strain on Scientific Publishing’ by Mark A Hanson, Dan Brockington, Paolo Crosetto and Pablo Gomez Barreiro
the-strain-on-scientific-publishing.github.io
June 10, 2025 at 11:14 AM
First they clone themselves (Nature X...), now they clone MDPI. The goal is to offer a tiered journal system that does not let manuscripts escape to other publishers' offerings. That would be like leaving money on the table.
A trickle of articles from the 36 journals analyzed in our Invasion of the Journal Snatchers study continues to be indexed in Scopus each week, despite their official statement claiming these titles had been discontinued www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Invasion of the ‘journal snatchers’: the firms that buy science publications and turn them rogue
Study finds dozens of journals that have hiked their fees and started churning out papers after being acquired by small, recently formed companies.
www.nature.com
June 2, 2025 at 11:55 AM
A trickle of articles from the 36 journals analyzed in our Invasion of the Journal Snatchers study continues to be indexed in Scopus each week, despite their official statement claiming these titles had been discontinued www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Alberto Martín
Question. I see a lot of papers with the same design of a Figure (see the picture). Is there a specific software for drawing this kind of figure? I wonder why there are similar figures from different authors that are not connected with each other.
June 2, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Question. I see a lot of papers with the same design of a Figure (see the picture). Is there a specific software for drawing this kind of figure? I wonder why there are similar figures from different authors that are not connected with each other.
Reposted by Alberto Martín
LOL! the table from the paper has also columns called Mini and Maxi. I guess they messed with the skirt length instead of min and max values!!!
June 2, 2025 at 10:22 AM
This piece from @forbetterscience.bsky.social is gold: it reveals how paper mills operate from the inside. Apparently, long non-coding RNAs are a recurring topic in paper mills. Interestingly, that’s the focus of a recent article in Profesional de la Información: forbetterscience.com/2025/05/19/a...
May 19, 2025 at 10:10 PM
This piece from @forbetterscience.bsky.social is gold: it reveals how paper mills operate from the inside. Apparently, long non-coding RNAs are a recurring topic in paper mills. Interestingly, that’s the focus of a recent article in Profesional de la Información: forbetterscience.com/2025/05/19/a...
In April, Scopus announced it would discontinue coverage of the 36 journals analysed in our Invasion of the Journal Snatchers study. www.nature.com/articles/d41... doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
Invasion of the ‘journal snatchers’: the firms that buy science publications and turn them rogue
Study finds dozens of journals that have hiked their fees and started churning out papers after being acquired by small, recently formed companies.
www.nature.com
May 19, 2025 at 5:19 PM
In April, Scopus announced it would discontinue coverage of the 36 journals analysed in our Invasion of the Journal Snatchers study. www.nature.com/articles/d41... doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
Reposted by Alberto Martín
New blog post in which I:
📈 detail a new citations-for-sale scheme in Google Scholar
🧻 make the 395 fake papers generated through this scheme available as a dataset
💤 chastise Google for failing to maintain the most widely used academic search engine
Enjoy!
reeserichardson.blog/2025/05/06/g...
📈 detail a new citations-for-sale scheme in Google Scholar
🧻 make the 395 fake papers generated through this scheme available as a dataset
💤 chastise Google for failing to maintain the most widely used academic search engine
Enjoy!
reeserichardson.blog/2025/05/06/g...
Google Scholar is (still) doing nothing about citation manipulation
Detailing yet another citation manipulation scheme in Google Scholar
reeserichardson.blog
May 6, 2025 at 2:41 PM
New blog post in which I:
📈 detail a new citations-for-sale scheme in Google Scholar
🧻 make the 395 fake papers generated through this scheme available as a dataset
💤 chastise Google for failing to maintain the most widely used academic search engine
Enjoy!
reeserichardson.blog/2025/05/06/g...
📈 detail a new citations-for-sale scheme in Google Scholar
🧻 make the 395 fake papers generated through this scheme available as a dataset
💤 chastise Google for failing to maintain the most widely used academic search engine
Enjoy!
reeserichardson.blog/2025/05/06/g...
Reposted by Alberto Martín
In the same way a meta analysis can be like a CDO (packing crap assets together to make a 'better' equity and selling it), these journal acquisitions are weirdly similar to the asset stripping tactics of private equity.
This is what happens when for profit corporations get to buy up what should be public good serving journals.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01198-6?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20250502&utm_source=nature_etoc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CONR_41586_AWA1_GL_DTEC_054CI_TOC-250502
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01198-6?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20250502&utm_source=nature_etoc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CONR_41586_AWA1_GL_DTEC_054CI_TOC-250502
Invasion of the ‘journal snatchers’: the firms that buy science publications and turn them rogue
Study finds dozens of journals that have hiked their fees and started churning out papers after being acquired by small, recently formed companies.
www.nature.com
May 5, 2025 at 12:19 PM
In the same way a meta analysis can be like a CDO (packing crap assets together to make a 'better' equity and selling it), these journal acquisitions are weirdly similar to the asset stripping tactics of private equity.
La revista Profesional de la Información (PI) es de las pocas revistas analizadas en “Invasion of the journal snatchers” que siguió generando DOI tras ser transferida a una editorial cuestionable a finales de 2023. Esto parece positivo, pero analicemos el caso. 🧵👇 doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
April 26, 2025 at 11:23 AM
La revista Profesional de la Información (PI) es de las pocas revistas analizadas en “Invasion of the journal snatchers” que siguió generando DOI tras ser transferida a una editorial cuestionable a finales de 2023. Esto parece positivo, pero analicemos el caso. 🧵👇 doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
My mother would like a word.
April 23, 2025 at 5:45 PM
My mother would like a word.