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Third editor fired in Elsevier’s citation cartel crackdown

chrisbrunet.com

51–60 of 103 posts

Re: Third editor fired in Elsevier’s citation cartel crackdown

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are few things I’m afraid of more than a man that thinks himself righteous, because there is very little that such a man would be unwilling to do. So it makes sense to be cautious when I find myself feeling like one, or being pulled along by the emotions of another who does.

You're not wrong about the danger posed, but take a step back and consider who this attitude helps. The greatest beneficiaries of a culture in which good faith and civility are unconditionally granted for fear of misguided righteous anger is a paradise for fraudsters and bad faith actors. I think we're seeing that world now.

This is a good point. I tend to be careful not to fall into this trap myself, but it doesn't really do any good to call it out in public. it ends up empowering the bad actors. Thank you for this awareness.

Re: Third editor fired in Elsevier’s citation cartel crackdown

#52
post #47
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment is funny because it’s completely opposite - economics has generally great track record and fraudulent results typically do not survive for long. Citation cartels and paper mills exist in all disciplines.

Does it, really? There haven't been any problematic issues since economists and their lore became a dominant influence over politics that could be attributed to this influence?

[flagged]

Re: Third editor fired in Elsevier’s citation cartel crackdown

#53

A fun and interesting article! I must however, take the time to be the ever-sensitive snowflake and highlight a troubling trend in this person's other posts. He seems to have some anti-trans leanings[1], refusing to gender people correctly and all that (and certainly not pushing back against comments which declare "M to Fs are psychotic bullies who would kill all of us to maintain their sacred illusion". Not to imply…

I'm torn about your comment. On the one hand, the context is interesting. On the other hand, it's almost unrelated to the substance of this post of his. I suppose there's a general anti-mainstream-science bias propagating through national-conservative/far-right/alt-right circles, specifically about how the world of academia functions. However, the facts of this post about how a corner of academia functions ought to s…

To be honest, the skepticism around non-STEM fields is completely deserved. It's a complete shithole.

Re: Third editor fired in Elsevier’s citation cartel crackdown

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are few things I’m afraid of more than a man that thinks himself righteous, because there is very little that such a man would be unwilling to do. So it makes sense to be cautious when I find myself feeling like one, or being pulled along by the emotions of another who does.

You're not wrong about the danger posed, but take a step back and consider who this attitude helps. The greatest beneficiaries of a culture in which good faith and civility are unconditionally granted for fear of misguided righteous anger is a paradise for fraudsters and bad faith actors. I think we're seeing that world now.

[flagged]

Re: Third editor fired in Elsevier’s citation cartel crackdown

#57
post #40

Sayre's Law: Academic Politics Are So Vicious Because the Stakes Are So Small Maybe universities, tenure committees, and funding sources should stop measuring academics by vanity metrics such as H-Index and publication counts. And don't get me started on the tendency toward "minimum publishable units." That said, abusing power as an editor deserves a special place in hell...

The stakes are pretty large now. You are judged on the number of publications, positions, citations, etc.

It’s not even about philosophical disagreement as much as future career

Re: Third editor fired in Elsevier’s citation cartel crackdown

#58
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not wrong about the danger posed, but take a step back and consider who this attitude helps. The greatest beneficiaries of a culture in which good faith and civility are unconditionally granted for fear of misguided righteous anger is a paradise for fraudsters and bad faith actors. I think we're seeing that world now.

[flagged]

This is almost random its such an odd response. Unconditionally granting good faith should be given to people because... racism.

Re: Third editor fired in Elsevier’s citation cartel crackdown

#60

The funny thing is, if the guy wasn't quite so greedy with this racket, probably no one would notice. Surely if the number of your publications and citations shoots up exponentially and surpasses those of much more well-known scientists, folks are bound to ask questions. I wonder if this got out of control or whether he really did think it's a good idea to collude his way to such prominence.

> probably no one would notice.

It probably wouldn't have risen to this level. People always notice but don't always react in ways you can measure.

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