Monday, July 24, 2023

Herbert Open Access Journals (HOAJ) "inspired ... to allure the word Herbert"

The website of Herbert Open Access Journals (HOAJ) presents no address but seems to have been composed by someone with unusual locution. For example, HOAJ's "editor guidelines" sputter that "Here it takes an induction to all the Editors with a minimum set of goals and responsibilities in order to follow primary instructions, Publication Ethics, to acquaint the policies and other integrated procedures." As for the "Herbert" in HOAJ, "Nobel Laureate, Herbert Charles Brown has inspired us to allure the word Herbert from his name."

Of the many journals, I confined my attention to the Journal of Medical Statistics and Informatics. Although it has been around since 2011, it is not indexed in MEDLINE. It appears to be unable to keep up with affiliations of some of its editors:

  • Co-editor-in-chief "Jimmy Efird, University of Newcastle, Australia" left that university over three years ago (according to his LinkedIn page). The current affiliation as shown on LinkedIn and in the American Statistical Association (ASA) directory is the Boston VA Cooperative Studies Program Coordinating Center. Dr. Efird (or at least his name) is affilated with other, clearly problematic publishers: Scientific Research Publishing (SCIRP) (editorial board, American Journal of Analytical Chemistry); Bentham Science, country editor, Current Pharmaceutical Design); SciTechnol, editorial board, International Journal of Cardiovascular Research).
  • Editorial board member "Sharon Marie Homan, University of North Texas Health Sciences Center USA" was an administrator and faculty member at UNT for three years. According to LinkedIn, that ended over seven years ago, in February 2016.

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