[Geo4All] Open request for updates on SDG book

Mon Jul 16 15:09:56 PDT 2018

Hi Cameron,

Thank you for your mail. I am working in good faith to address a moral issue.

ICA is my organisation for which  I have volunteered for the last 15 years and continuing . It is a 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 . ICA has now corrected the mistake . Everyone makes mistakes and it takes courage to correct the mistakes . I am grateful that ICA has now 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.

But 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. I am happy to work on a Open Letter to the global scientific and educator community to highlight the wider issue and will appreciate your help. I am not a native English speaker (I am learning everyday and improving) . Full credits for the previous Open letters go to you and other colleagues who were able to correctly structure the ideas and sentences.

Best wishes,

Suchith

________________________________
From: GeoForAll <geoforall-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> on behalf of Cameron Shorter <cameron.shorter at gmail.com>
Sent: 16 July 2018 20:22
To: geoforall at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [Geo4All] Open request for updates on SDG book

Suthith,

I am confused by the content of this email thread, and concerned that there have been public allegations of misconduct, without specific examples, or specific calls to action specifying how specific parties should change to address this. I feel that such allegations which have potential commercial impacts should not be made lightly and need backing information.

It is unclear to me whether someone is acting legitimately according to business principles of their company, or if people are breaking contracts they set up, or acting in "bad faith".

Suthith, as I know you, I believe you are acting in good faith to address a moral issue by putting the spotlight on questionable behavior. If you wish to address issues like this, then I feel your concerns should to be expressed more clearly and specifically, which would likely mean naming specific actions that you disagree with and probably naming organisations involved. You might want to consider writing an Open Letter, as we have successfully done before [1] [2]. (Note: this is very time consuming).

[1] https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Geoservices_REST_API

Geoservices REST API - OSGeo<https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Geoservices_REST_API>
wiki.osgeo.org
This page aims to collate community concerns related to the adoption of the "Geoservices REST API" document as a standard of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC).The page has been collaboratively edited, and delivered by the board of the OSGeo Foundation (OSGeo) to the OGC and OGC voting members on Friday 17 May 2013.

[2] https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/LIDAR_Format_Letter

On 17/7/18 4:21 am, Suchith Anand wrote:

Dear Anthony,

These are two separate issues but it highlights the problems we are facing in science and education  today.  I am a humble ICA volunteer and I am working for the last 15 years building ICA in my small way. My issue is not at all with ICA , it is just the way this whole SDG book is handled from the start.

I have great respect for Menno-Jan. I personally emailed colleagues for supporting the SDG book in good faith. Thank you for informing me that SDG book is not now going to be published through GIS vendor controlled press. I would have greatly appreciated a mail from Menno-Jan informing this . I am disappointed with the lack of openness and transparency in this whole issue. If I have not raised this issue so strongly, then Menno-Jan would have got it published through vendor controlled press as he planned . This is actually what is happening if we are silent.

I have highlighted some issues  that made me concerned  of the  degrading of science that is happening including now with some vendors starting using “science” for marketing/sales of their products.  I am  hoping that you will also be taking a strong stand on this.

I have no problem with any organisation taking sponsorship for conferences as there are clear guidelines for what is expected. For example, as a conference sponsor in exchange they get exhibition space, logo in conference website etc.

But I have concern if any office bearers of any professional organisations , academic journals, editors have conflict of interest with any vendors (open or properitery). In my humble opinion, It is good practice to declare any conflict of interest.  As you rightly said “Virtually everyone involved in editing/reviewing a journal today is seeing stuff like that” but what are we  doing to stop this? We cannot ignore this. I am happy to see some very good journal editors like the ICA colleague who emailed me informing the issue asking advice. He could have easily ignored it . So I greatly respect him for his courage and conscience.

We are all human and people make mistakes but it is important that we learn from them. I thank you for your mail and sharing your valuable ideas and inputs with the community.

Best wishes,

Suchith

________________________________
From: GeoForAll <geoforall-bounces at lists.osgeo.org><mailto:geoforall-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> on behalf of Anthony Robinson <acr181 at psu.edu><mailto:acr181 at psu.edu>
Sent: 16 July 2018 15:44
To: geoforall at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:geoforall at lists.osgeo.org>
Subject: Re: [Geo4All] Open request for updates on SDG book

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><mailto:c.willmes at uni-koeln.de>; geoforall at lists.osgeo.org<mailto: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

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

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