In Kosovo, University of Pristina Rector Ibrahim Gashi is being pressured to resign after it was revealed he published articles in predatory journals to meet the requirements for promotion to full professor.

A published report states that promotion to full professor at the university requires at least five publications in international, peer-reviewed journals. According to the report, Gashi has three articles published in the International Journal of Engineering and Management Sciences, a journal published by the Lucknow, India-based publisher Society for Science and Nature.

This publisher is included on my list of predatory publishers here.

Dr. Gashi has co-authored three articles in volume 4, issue 3 (2013) of the International Journal of Engineering and Management Sciences. All three articles have multiple authors, and he is not the first author on any of them:

To demonstrate that the International Journal of Engineering and Management Sciences is bogus, someone from Albania using the name “Filan Fisteku” (the Albanian equivalent of John Doe) submitted a bogus paper to the journal, where it was accepted and published. The paper is a satire of The Communist Manifesto with subtle references to Dr. Gashi. It is entitled The Principles of Manifesting Management at a Public University in a Developing Country: Case of Kosova [PDF].

Gashi also appears as a co-author on an article in Scientific Research Publishing’s journal Energy and Power Engineering. This publisher is also included in my list.

I also found an EBSCO HOST metadata record for an article co-authored by a “Gashi, Ibrahim” and published in the scandal-plagued journal Metalurgia International. The target of a sting operation last year, Metalurgia International had its impact factor removed, and then it disappeared from the internet.

Another published report said students were planning a protest to demand the rector’s resignation. The protest was scheduled for 1:30 PM on Friday, January 24th. This report did not directly link the demands for resignation to publications in predatory journals, however, citing only “recent scandals,” according to a translation from Google Translate.

Gashi deflected the criticism by explaining that he is not the first author of any of the questionable articles and the first author has the responsibility of selecting which journal to submit to.

What does all this say about predatory publishers? Is Dr. Gashi a victim of predatory publishers or is he complicit? Both scenarios are possible. What I know for sure is that predatory publishers are poisoning research and scholarly communication in many countries.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 24th, 2014 at 10:01 AM and is filed under Scholarly Open-Access Publishers, Unethical Practices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.