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<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt">Dear colleagues,</span><br>
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<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt">It has come to my attention that there is rapid increase in low quality and dubious submissions send to all journals. This is a global problem that needs a coordinated effort to help solve.</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt">
</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt">With the rapid increase in lot of low quality and dubious</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt">
</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt">submissions to all journals , it is important that all professional and scientific organisations are careful in this .</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
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<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt">My humble suggestion and request is that all</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt"> GIS </span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt">professional organisations should avoid</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt">
</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt">taking any sponsorship or royalty for scholarly publications (books, journals etc) from any</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt"> </span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt">GIS
vendors . If a professional association takes sponsorship for any scholarly publication (edited books etc)</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt">
</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-size:11pt">from any GIS vendor and agrees to publish it through the vendor’s press then there is potential issues with independent peer review and ensuring scientific quality. It is only </span><span style="font-size:11pt">natural
that any GIS vendor publication press to have vested interests in promoting their products and agenda.</span></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt"> </span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-size:11pt">It also makes it easy for
the vendor to get endorsement for th</span><span style="font-size:11pt">eir </span><span style="font-size:11pt"> products from scientific and professional </span><span style="font-size:11pt">organisations </span><span style="font-size:11pt">using this route.</span></span></p>
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<p style="margin-right:0px; margin-left:0px; line-height:normal"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-family:"Helvetica Neue"; font-size:11pt">By taking sponsorship for scholarly publications (edited books etc) from any vendors , it will then become difficult
for the Professional Organisations to take strong moral</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-family:"Helvetica Neue"; font-size:11pt">
</span><font face="Helvetica Neue"><span style="font-size:11pt">stand against low quality and dubious submissions for other journals .</span></font><font face="Helvetica Neue"><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-size:11pt">Especially in times we
are seeing </span><span style="font-size:11pt">increase in fake scientific articles submissions etc, it is important to</span></span></font><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-family:"Helvetica Neue"; font-size:11pt">
</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-family:"Helvetica Neue"; font-size:12px"><span style="font-size:11pt">have clear guidelines for any sponsorship</span><span style="font-size:11pt">.</span></span></p>
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<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt">I am happy to work on a Open Letter to highlight this issue but will need help from the wider community. If you are a journal editor, it will be very helpful, if you can share the statistics of how many</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt">
</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt">articles that you have identified in the last three years that are problem and you have rejected .It will be helpful to share examples of these (removing author details etc) , so the wider community is aware
of the problem and can take steps to help reduce the problem in the future.</span></p>
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<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt">Best wishes,</span></p>
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<p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt"></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt"></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt"></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt"></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt"></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt"></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt"></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt"></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt"></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt"></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt"></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt"></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt"></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt"></span></p>
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<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-size:11pt">Suchith</span></p>
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