[Geo4All] Open request for updates on SDG book

Mon Jul 16 07:44:55 PDT 2018

Suchith,

You are making many assumptions and strange connections in your message.
Did you try reaching out to Menno-Jan directly, rather than via this
mailing list? It’s strange to call people out via a mailing list and act
as though they owe you a response. That’s not a particularly friendly way
to start a conversation.

I share Christian’s concern that you are appearing to conflate fake
articles in predatory journals to the ICA’s interest in an SDG-related
publication. Such things are happening across the scientific spectrum
today and have nothing in particular to do with the ICA or its interest in
creating an SDG publication. Virtually everyone involved in
editing/reviewing a journal today is seeing stuff like that. It’s a
problem for sure, but I don’t understand why you are aiming this issue at
the ICA in particular.

I am an ICA Commission chair and to my knowledge the SDG publication is no
longer under consideration as an Esri Press item, so I recommend you relax
a little on that front.

Re: sponsorship and the like, just as every other conference does, the ICA
publishes its list of financial sponsors for the biannual conference.
That’s the whole idea of sponsorship, after all – to gain visibility in
association with an organization/meeting.

Regards,

-Anthony

Anthony C. Robinson, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Geography
Director for Online Geospatial Education, John A. Dutton e-Education
Institute
Assistant Director, GeoVISTA Center
The Pennsylvania State University
sites.psu.edu/arobinson/

From: GeoForAll [mailto:geoforall-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of
Suchith Anand
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2018 6:37 AM
To: Christian Willmes <c.willmes at uni-koeln.de>; geoforall at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [Geo4All] Open request for updates on SDG book

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
<mailto:geoforall-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> > on behalf of Christian
Willmes <c.willmes at uni-koeln.de <mailto:c.willmes at uni-koeln.de> >
Sent: 16 July 2018 09:54
To: geoforall at lists.osgeo.org <mailto: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>
https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/geoforall/2017-June/003790.html

[2]
https://www.rd-alliance.org/group/geospatial-ig/post/open-letter-importanc
e-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
Tel.: +49 (0)221 470 6234
http://www.geographie.uni-koeln.de/14126.html
http://www.sfb806.de
http://crc806db.uni-koeln.de
http://publons.com/a/1316706/
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