[Geo4All] Open request for updates on SDG book

Mon Jul 16 03:36:46 PDT 2018

Dear Christian,

No, the SDG book is a different issue .  I had requested many times to Menno-Jan to please have free and open discussions on this .But unfortunately my requests were not successful and I have not got any information even one year later.

In spite of all concerns raised by volunteer colleagues,  I really do not understand the motivations for publishing the SDG book only through vendor publication!

“Fake Science” , “Factory produced articles” etc are  recent phenomena that the geo community  needs to be aware of and take steps to prevent. I have requested the ICA colleague who emailed me for advice on 29th June 2018  to send an open letter to the community, so colleagues are aware of this.  I really hope he will not bow to any pressures and do send an open letter with details to the wider community.

In the email I received ,  it was just the overview that his  journal  are receiving  lot of submissions  from a country  that are very similar  -“ poorly written, poor map design – to the point that they seem written in a factory” . They were all using one proprietary GIS  software and deal with some aspect of physical geography. He asked for my advice.

 I am very grateful to the ICA colleague  who emailed me and informed this issue.  I don’t know the details of the papers  but I am also interested to see the examples of  atleast some of these papers (may be as editor of journal he can provide these by removing the author details ).  I do hope he will send an open letter to the community with the summary of how many articles they are receiving which are problem. It will help  us to get an idea of the scale of the problem.

It is very sad to see this degrading of science happening. As Educators and Scientists , I believe we cannot sit silently. There will be lot of pressure from  vested interests , but I am requesting all colleagues to not bow to any pressures. Thank you.

Best wishes,

Suchith

________________________________
From: GeoForAll <geoforall-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> on behalf of Christian Willmes <c.willmes at uni-koeln.de>
Sent: 16 July 2018 09:54
To: geoforall at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [Geo4All] Open request for updates on SDG book

Dear Suchith,

regarding this "Fake Science" thing. Is this in any way connected to the book initiative you addressed in the first two paragraphs?

Anyway, I would be quite interested in seeing such a "factory produced fake science" article? Can you maybe point to an example?

Thanks and best regards,
Christian

Am 14.07.2018 um 16:13 schrieb Suchith Anand:

Dear Menno-Jan,

It is now over one year and I have not heard any updates on the SDG book [1] .  As far as I am aware, there was no emails received  in the GeoforAll lists on this till now. Please correct me if I am wrong.

As you are aware, I have personally requested colleagues  in the open source Geo community to support the ICA SDG book initiative and they have contributed to this book project in good faith, so I request you to kindly keep them informed. I thank you for your kind understanding.

We are 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 [2] . The good news  is that now everyone knows it is just marketing/sales gimmicks of vendor . Science is not owned by any vendors.

But two weeks back, I received a email query from a respectable and senior ICA  colleague that made me very concerned. He is one of the editors of a GIS journal . They are receiving  lot of submissions  from a country  that are very similar  -“ poorly written, poor map design – to the point that they seem written in a factory” .  They were all using one proprietary GIS  software and deal with some aspect of physical geography. He asked for my advice.

I thanked him for sharing this  information and though I do not know the background or details of the papers or authors, I am also very concerned  to hear about this . It is really sad to see the state of affairs in GIS . I requested  him to take strong action against any “factory produced” science and reject them.  I am concerned in the rapid increase in  “Fake Science” . I  requested him to inform this to the wider community through an open letter .

But this is not the solution as if one journal rejects these “factory produced  science”, then these kind of   papers will  be submitted to other journals. I won’t be surprised if in future some vendors even start their own journals with their own editorial boards !  What will then happen  to the credibility of peer review and scientific quality.

I think  it is important that editors of all GIS journals and leadership of all GIS Professional bodies like ICA  declare any conflict of interest with any vendors (funding/sponsorship/gifts  received from any software vendors currently or in the past) to ensure transparency and good practices.

I am just a  ICA volunteer . I am hoping that you will take principled  leadership and action against  “Fake Science” , “Factory produced  science” and any unethical practices in GIS that is affecting Science and Education from any vendors (open or proprietary) .

I thank you for  the work on SDG book and looking forward to hear updates.

Best wishes,

Suchith

[1] https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/geoforall/2017-June/003790.html

[2] https://www.rd-alliance.org/group/geospatial-ig/post/open-letter-importance-scientific-freedom-and-public-good

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--
Dr. Christian Willmes
AG GIS & Fernerkundung      | GIS & RS Group
Geographisches Institut     | Institute of Geography
Universität zu Köln         | University of Cologne
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