On being Editor of a Prestigious Journal

A Very Regrettable Affair with Fronters in BS (FBS)!

?In an earlier essay on ‘Unstructured Life,” I wrote about my career development, and how I started a professional society (www.sasat.org) and edited several books on ‘Cardiometabolic Diseases.’ Last year I edited two books, -one on Type-2 diabetes and the other on coronary artery disease ?for JP Medical Publishers, New Delhi. I should have quit, -when I was at the top of my professional activities. However, when I received an invitation to edit and publish ‘my own digital special issue’ on a topic of great interest to me,- Cardiometabolic Diseases’ by Frontiers in Biosciences (FBS), I could not resist.

Name: Gundu H. R. Rao, March 10, 2020. Siamak Tabibzadeh, MD, Professor.

Title of the issue: Novel approaches to the management of cardiometabolic disease.

Year of the launch: 2021

Dear Dr Gundu H. R. Rao

You are a managing editor of the Frontiers in Bioscience. Your issue is currently active in the "Encyclopedia of Bioscience". Your issue is listed at?https://www.bioscience.org/special-issues-and-managing-editors

I thought it was a great opportunity to consolidate our three decades of work on this topic in a comprehensive monograph. We had organized fifteen international conferences on this topic of great public interest and published at least ten books on this subject under the aegis of our professional society,- South Asian Society on Atherosclerosis and Thrombosis(SASAT). Therefore, I accepted the invitation from Professor Siamak Tabibzadeh (ST). I looked him up on internet and found that he was listed as President, Editor in Chief, Frontiers in Biosciences. To be sure, I inquired whether I was really in charge or just someone who will recruit contributors for his special issue. He assured me that I was 100% in control and that articles for this special issue will be free of any processing charges.

I started recruiting contributors for this special issue. Within a few weeks, I got an email stating that administration has changed, and Professor ST is no longer working for FBS. I was told that Biochemistry Research Institute (BRI) has taken over the administration ([email protected]). I tried to look this organization up on the Internet with no success. I recruited several individuals to contribute original reviews related to the topic of our interest. I also submitted couple of reviews.

The very first confrontation occurred when they started using a software called ‘iThenticate’ to look at the similarity index. They sent what they called a ‘plagiarism’ report. I wrote back saying that this software does not really identify plagiarism but looks for similarity or reuse of text using pattern recognition algorithms. Since till that time it was a ‘faceless’ platform, I looked up who is the new Editor-in Chief (EiC) of the FBS. I found out that the new EiC was Professor Graham Pawelec (GP) of University of Tuebingen. I forwarded a booklet published by Elsevier titled, -Similarity (Cross) Check: What every Editor Should Know About Similarity Cross Check to GP.

Anyway, they decided to go ahead and use this software analytics in addition to the review by two independent reviewers. In protest, I withdrew my articles. But continued to recruit articles and instructed them that they will have to pass this similarity cross check. At this point, I asked the BRI team to identify themselves when they send letters. I started getting letters signed Aurora, Assistant Editor. Soon after this incident I got a letter from Aurora, indicting that the contributors will be charged Article Processing Charges by the new management. I again protested and informed them that they will have to abide by the previous contract, which had assured free of cost publishing. Soon after I got a letter saying that there is a change in the manuscript submission process and all articles must be submitted online. I had invited Dr Abdul Jaleel an expert to write a review on the ‘Role of ncRNA in Vascular Dysfunction.’ He submitted his article online. He was told by the BRI administration, that his article was rejected as they found it unsuitable for the special issue. I had to take up this again to Prof Graham Pawelec and he supported my views that invited articles should not be rejected before proper review process.

By this time several names started appearing in the correspondence with BRI Editorial Team. Majority of them claiming that they are Managing Editors. I was not aware that my so-called special issue was split into articles for various journals; Frontiers-Landmark, Frontiers-Scholar and Fronters-Elite. It looked like I was recruiting articles for various journals of Frontiers than for a ‘special issue’ of my own. Then came the shocker. One of the Editors wrote to a contributor the article which was reviewed, revised, and accepted was rejected as the editor found it unsuitable for the journal as the focus was changed by the new administration. I objected to this unprecedented, misguided action by the editorial staff. I copied my letter to Professor Graham Pawelec. He wrote back that it was unusual to reject an accepted article unless there was a strong reason to do so. He hoped that the issue will be settled in favor of my request by the administration. By this time, I realized the EiC really had no power over the new editorial team as he did not make a decision on this and instead left it to the editorial committee of the so called “BRI.”

Within days yet another editor wrote a similar letter to another contributor rejecting the reviewed, revised, and accepted article. I protested this action and copied my letter to Prof Graham Pawelec. This time he wrote back saying that he is not the EiC of this journal and he does not know what the editorial team of this journal is doing. That is when I realized the chaos at the BRI Editorial Team. For the life of me, I do not know who is running this BRI. I googled for additional information about this platform, and I could not find anything. Only BRI that I could find is a company in Maryland that provides Biorepository Services. In summary, my original contract with the FBS was to develop my own Special Digital Issue on Cardiometabolic Diseases (Your special issue in the "Encyclopedia of Bioscience" of the Frontiers in Bioscience). The new administration has broken that contract, initiated changes to channel the articles into three new journals. Since I am not interested in acting as recruiter of articles for these journals, I have sent in my resignation.

This is not the first time a reputed publisher has broken the contract. In 2016, Macmillan Medical Communications of New Delhi approached me to edit a book on coronary artery disease. I recruited contributors and developed a comprehensive monograph. However, when the final product was developed, I was told that the company has been acquired by Springer Healthcare Education and the newly established company will not market printed copies of the book anymore. I had to request Macmillan Medical Communications to revert our copyrights as they broke the original contract. I had to negotiate with JP Medical Publishers, New Delhi and edit a revised version of this book with the title, ‘Handbook of Coronary Artery Disease’ (ISBN # 978-9389-188-301). Four years of precious time (2016-2020) was lost in this process.

Why am I writing all this? I want to educate the young enthusiastic academicians about the changing trends in publishing. Innumerable number of predatory journals have appeared. They keep sending invitations after invitations. If one makes a mistake and publishes an article before making adequate inquiry, they may get hefty bills from some unrelated billing agency. There are national and international legal cases filed on such transactions. My sincere suggestion is never send an article without negotiating a complete waiver of article publication charges. It is also equally important, to get such a letter of assurance from a responsible officer representing the journal. Second area of concern is the total loss of respect for the editors. In the olden days to be an editor meant recognition of academic achievements. Currently, journals are sending invitations after invitations asking to join their board as editors. These are just honorary positions with absolutely no power or any remuneration . As I realized recently, you may be the EiC of a reputed journal, which lists over hundred editors and associate editors, yet have a limited input or power to make any administrative decisions. It is all done by the staff at back offices (editorial offices).

I am one of those, who find it difficult to adjust to the changing trends. In a recent MIT Technology review series, ?there is an entirely dedicated issue dealing with this issue. Having said that, I must say that I took an early retirement a decade ago,-not able to cope up with the changing academic world and never-ending struggle to get funding for just survival. Under the title, :”Fear of our older selves,” David Rotman, Editor of MIT Technology Reviews writes (Sept/Oct 2019), “ It?has been 12 years since Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg famously asserted that “Young people are just smarter.” At the same time, billionaire venture capitalist Vinod Khosla told an audience, “People under 35 are the people who make change happen.” According to Rotman, “Academic research indicates that Zuckerberg and Khosla are wrong.” Benjamin Jones an economist at Northwestern presented evidence that great scientific achievements in the physical science and medicine come in middle age, not from the precocious young. Our ideas about old age and possible extraordinary contributions by the young, -were mostly made up by management consultants, marketers and not by hundreds of editors listed at the FBS site. Like my decision to retire?a decade ago, now I have made my decision to retire from this rat race, so that I can concentrate on what I like most for the remainder of my life.

References:

Elsevier: Similarity (Cross) Check: What Every Editor Should Know About Similarity Cross Check ( iThenticate).

Murdak B: Self-Plagiarism: How to Define it and Why You Should Avoid It. AJE Scholar. ( Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University).

Potomac Maryland, September 27, 2021.