While I had actually read the article in question shortly after it first came out, I was unaware of the fallout until earlier this morning. This is a story you should be aware of.
How I learned of it: Investigation launched into alleged academic freedom violations at Thompson Rivers University
What I had missed: B.C. economist in grim battle against deceptive scholarship and Suspended B.C. prof who exposed fake journals welcomes investigation.
In a nutshell, Dr. Derek Pyne wrote a paper in early 2017 titled, The Rewards of Predatory Publications at a Small Business School, in which he looked at how many of his colleagues in the business school at Thompson Rivers University had published articles in predatory journals. Quite a few, as it turned out. From his conclusion (emphasis mine):
Predatory journals have become an increasing problem when it comes to assessing and rewarding researchers for the merit of their publishing records. In addition, the presence of predatory journals makes it difficult for non-experts to judge the quality and validity of published research. This paper finds that, at least at one university, there are few incentives not to publish in predatory journals. In addition, when the opportunity cost of forgone income from extra teaching is significant, publishing in ranked journals is costly.
Of course it's understandable that his colleagues and administrators would be embarrassed by this paper, but apparently he has been suspended from his position, and the university as a whole, for bringing this information to light. I say apparently, because so far Thompson Rivers University hasn't provided any actual reason. Well, they do say all this.... Despite what you'll find in the preceding link, this appears to be completely against the concepts of academic freedom and tenure, like seriously TRU?
So this post is just to make sure y'all are aware of this sorry situation, and I now have an alert on his name so will let you know when it's been resolved. Of course these are my opinions and not those of my employer, yadda yadda yadda.
November 7 Updates:
Here's a good 15-minute audio summary of the whole situation: 10/3 podcast: A B.C. economist is in hot water for exposing fake journals
And here's an article from The Economist I missed from this past summer which mentions Dr. Pyne's paper, but appears to have come out just before his suspension: Some science journals that claim to peer review papers do not do so
November 20, 2019 Update:
Report: Academic Freedom Breached at Thompson Rivers University
