[OSGeo-Discuss] Draft of Open Letter on the importance to protecting independent peer review frameworks for Scholarly publications of Scientific Associations
María Arias de Reyna
delawen at gmail.com
Tue Jul 24 03:02:13 PDT 2018
Hi,
I can't agree more with you :)
On Tue, Jul 24, 2018 at 11:53 AM, Suchith Anand <
Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk> wrote:
> Dear colleagues,
>
>
>
> I have prepared a draft letter with my ideas/suggestions .I am just a
> volunteer and I feel sad that that I have to raise this issue through an
> open letter. But if I remain silent on this , I will be indirectly
> supporting the degrading of independent peer review frameworks for
> Scholarly publications of Scientific Associations.
>
>
> It is the fundamental duty of all Officers of Scientific
> Associations/Organisations to always take steps to guard and protect
> independent peer review frameworks for Scholarly publications of
> Scientific Associations. I am hopeful and confident that that they all will
> do this for the future.
>
>
> I am not a native English speaker, so please help refine this letter
> correctly. I want us to look at the future not focus on mistakes made in
> past . Some mistakes have been made and I understand that this is
> corrected. We are all human , so we all make mistakes . So let us not
> focus on past mistakes but look at ideas on how we can strengthen the
> independent peer review frameworks for Scholarly publications of
> Scientific Associations in the future.
>
>
> The International Cartographic Association (ICA) is my organisation for
> which I have volunteered for the last 15 years and continuing . I have
> great respect for everyone in this great global community . The SDG book is
> a community effort (not any individual’s book project) . I have requested
> from the start (as soon as I came to know) for openness and transparency in
> decision making for selecting the publisher. esp. as this book is on UN SDG
> . I understand that ICA has now corrected the mistake . Everyone makes
> mistakes and it takes courage to acknowledge and correct the mistakes
> .Compassion and forgiveness are important values . I am very grateful
> that ICA has listened to my concerns and rectified this . So I don’t have
> any issues with ICA or any colleagues in ICA. We might have difference in
> opinions on some issues and having free and open discussions is in my
> humble opinion the best way to learn each others perspectives and find best
> solutions to move forward.
>
>
>
> Please send any updates/modifications needed to the draft by 30th July
> 2018. I am on family holidays ( with no internet ) in first week of August,
> so I will aim to send this before I go on holidays.
>
>
>
> ===========================================
>
>
>
> *Draft of Open Letter on the importance to protecting independent peer
> review frameworks **for Scholarly publications of Scientific
> Associations*
>
>
> Scholarly publications (edited books, journals etc) from scientific
> associations/organisations has credibility and reputation because of
> strong independent peer review frameworks . We are very fortunate in the
> Geospatial domain to have many reputed Scientific Associations and
> organisations (ICA, IGU, ISPRS, IEEE-GRSS, IAG etc) who have over many
> decades provided strong leadership in advancement of geo science.
>
>
> In times of fake news, science is usually one of those areas that can give
> us orientation and we can rely on. Independent peer review frameworks for
> Scholarly publications is among the foundations of good science. However,
> this is obviously at risk now. If a professional association takes agrees
> to publish scholarly publications (edited books etc) through a GIS
> vendor’s press then there is potential issues with independent peer review
> and ensuring scientific quality. It is only natural that any GIS vendor
> publication press to have vested interests in promoting their products and
> agenda. It also makes it easy for the vendor to get endorsement for their
> products from scientific and professional organisations using this route. Independent
> peer review is the fundamental aspect of science and we need to ensure all
> steps to protect this.
>
>
> We are also now seeing a very disturbing trend with some vendors even
> starting to trademark “ science” for marketing/sales of their products
> and “science” is being misused for vendor marketing/sales! . I have
> raised this issue through an open letter [1] . Science is not a
> commodity to be marketed or sold by any vendor owners! I am very sad and
> disappointed to see this degrading of science happening. Scientific
> organisations should not endorse any specific vendor products etc as
> “Science” and take strong moral stand against marketing of products as
> “Science’ by any vendor owners!
>
>
>
> I am a volunteer for the ICA for the last 15 years and always done my best
> in my small way to support ICA . Around one year back, i*n the light of
> the **International Map Year (IMY)* <http://mapyear.org/>*, the *The
> International Cartographic Association (ICA) started an excellent
> initiative *for highlighting the value of cartography by “mapping” the **UN
> sustainable development goals* <https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/>*.*
> Building upon this, The ICA community started work on a book on UN SDG
> Mapping building upon the posters of the various commissions on this
> [2]. This is a great community initiative developed with inputs from all
> colleagues in commissions of the ICA. The Open Source Geospatial Commission
> colleagues also contributed our inputs for this. When the book project was
> announced, I did my best to contact colleagues to contribute to this in
> good faith. I didn’t have the faintest idea that it was being planned to be
> published through a properitary GIS vendor publication press! As soon
> as I came to know about this, I did contact Menno -Jan with my concerns and
> requested him that as this is a community book project to please allow open
> discussions and keep the community updated [3] . I was very surprised that
> there was no open and transparent discussions on selecting the book
> publisher was done.
>
>
> From an email from Anthony Robinson on 16th July 2018, I understand now
> that ICA is not proceeding with the vendor GIS publication press (Esri
> press) for the SDG book and I welcome this. But it is important we
> need to be learn lessons from this mistake and not repeat this in future. We
> are all humans and make mistakes.
>
>
> I fully respect the right of individuals publishing their personal work
> [1] in any publication house that they wish. But as officers of Scientific
> Organisations, esp. in times of some vendor owners
> doing marketing/sales on “Science” , I request all colleagues to be
> careful not to do anything that will undermine independent peer review
> process.
>
>
> I am suggesting some initial ideas that we all can take as a community to
> help reduce this problem in the future
>
>
>
>
> - All Scientific Associations and organisations should ensure that
> there is full open and transparent discussions allowed before choosing any
> publishers of scholarly publications (Edited Books etc).
>
>
>
> - It is important that GIS scientific associations/organisations take
> strong moral stand against taking sponsorship/royalty etc for
> scholarly publications from all GIS vendors . Independent peer review
> system is the fundamental aspect of science. So I am humbly requesting all
> Scientific organisations to not use any GIS vendor controlled press
> for publishing scholarly outputs (edited books etc). GIS
> scientific organisations should not take any sponsorship or royalty
> for scholarly publications (books, journals etc) from any GIS vendors
> . If a scientific association takes agrees to publish scholarly
> publications (edited books etc) through the vendor’s press then there
> is potential issues with independent peer review and ensuring scientific
> quality. It is only natural that any GIS vendor publication press to have
> vested interests in promoting their products and agenda. It also makes it
> easy for the vendor to get endorsement for their products from scientific
> and professional organisations using this route. Independent peer
> review is the fundamental aspect of science and we need to ensure all steps
> to protect this.
>
>
>
> - Officers of Scientific Organisations and Editors of all GIS journals declare
> any conflict of interest with any vendors (funding/sponsorship/royalties
> etc received from any GIS vendors currently or in the past) to ensure
> transparency and good practices.They should not support any vendors
> interest directly or indirectly. Scientific organisations should not
> endorse any specific vendor products etc as “Science” and take strong moral
> stand against marketing of products as “Science’ by any vendor owners!
>
>
>
> I am concerned with the wider degradation of science and education
> happening in different sectors. This is a moral issue and needs all
> organisations globally in science and education working together.
>
>
>
> It is the fundamental duty of all Officers of Scientific Organisations to
> guard and protect independent peer review frameworks for Scholarly
> publications of Scientific Associations. I am hopeful and confident that
> that they will do this for the future.
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
>
> Suchith
>
>
>
> [1] https://www.rd-alliance.org/group/geospatial-ig/post/open-
> letter-importance-scientific-freedom-and-public-good
>
> [2] https://icaci.org/maps-and-sustainable-development-goals/
>
> [3] https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/geoforall/2017-June/003790.html
>
> [4] https://esripress.esri.com/display/index.cfm?fuseaction=
> display&websiteID=254&moduleID=0
>
>
>
>
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