Frontiers retraction controversy

The following is a long post, but on an important issue.

Frontiers is an open source science publisher based in Switzerland. Their aim is to provide an open access, open science platform that empowers researchers in their daily work and where everybody has equal opportunity to seek, share and generate knowledge. They have started up a whole host of “Frontiers in” journals covering a wide range of subjects. They have also been linked with the Nature publishing group who is interested in the open access model Frontiers is developing.

So I jumped at the opportunity to be an associate editor of the newly established area of Interdisciplinary Climate Studies. The Editor in Chief is the Swiss climatologist, Professor Martin Beniston. An associate editor invites a panel of reviewers who review a collection of articles each year. The associate editor establishes their interdisciplinary area with a “challenges” paper to set the ball rolling. Their task is to encourage researchers to submit innovative papers exploring the frontiers of knowledge.

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ConspiracyGate!! Researchers collaborate and email each other – Oh noes

Apparently  those with access to the purloined emails from CRU have built a database of all the researchers mentioned in those emails and it is posted on a site that purports to show the real story behind the ‘few’ activists who are dictating the whole climate-is-changing fiasco. They are also developing exposés into the science of the IPCC to show how shonky it is. Can’t wait. Meantime, the real IPCC is scheduled to release its Fifth Assessment Report Science of Climate Change Summary for Policymakers on September 27.

Of course, the first thing one does with these sites is to see what it says about moi. So I looked myself up, and lo and behold, I am a conspirator of considerable conspiratocracy, appearing twice:

Jones

RN

Jones

Roger

Mothballs

Regular visitors will have noticed this site has been rather quiet for a long time – since late last year. This has been due to extreme workloads as I’ve been trying to complete several projects under conditions of significant duress. The cause of this duress has been people who sign contracts, then refuse to honour them. I got through it with much appreciated help from a few colleagues, who basically saved my arse – resigning was on the cards because I could not fulfill my obligations, having been let down by a number of people who failed to fulfill their commitments. Note: this has occurred across several projects in recent times, both in Australia and internationally.

This comes back to a broader problem of ethics in research, which I will write about in more detail at some stage. Suffice to say, I will not be entering any research projects based on trust in future, and will require people to sign codes of conduct that commit them to act ethically; shared ethics in research  apparently being a thing of the past.

Given the pressure on universities to obtain funds, it seems as if the central goal of many researchers is on receiving grants but not doing the work that entails. With the “efficiency dividends” now placing further pressure on both teaching and research in universities, it’s likely this situation will not improve in future. All universities have codes of conduct, but many young researchers seem to be unaware of them and some older researchers flout them shamelessly. They are mostly not enforced at the institutional level.

A further problem that has been brought to my attention via email, is where researchers take ideas and IP generally from people in practice and industry and publish them without acknowledgement. This is doing a great deal of damage to the academic research sector.

Readers who have been similarly affected are welcome to post their experiences in comments, but please be aware of libel laws in doing so. I’ll be working closely with a few people in an informal group of researchers and practitioners, started by a colleague, who agree to work collaboratively with each other, respect each others’ ideas and IP, openly embracing a broad ethical agenda. Email me if you’re interested – you know where to find me. There are one or two entire institutions I’m shy of due to repeat offences, so if I’m reluctant to engage, it might not be personal.

Edited 3:20 pm 27-05-2013