7 ms·

I agree that's unnecessary detail.

read_if_gay_ 6y ago
It's not about race, it's about the quality of the academic system, which is bad in many countries. I suppose GP intended it to compound - as in the guy was sketchy per se, and from a sketchy place.
- winstont 6y ago
  > the academic system, which is bad in many countries. I suppose GP intended it to compound - as in the guy was sketchy per se, and from a sketchy place. is it good here? is here considered less sketchy?
  - read_if_gay_ 6y ago
    Evidently it’s not perfect here but yes, it’s less sketchy, because there’s far worse out there.
    - remram 6y ago
      All you're arguing is that it's "not the most sketchy" not that it's less sketchy than the average. And you're offering no proof or example of that either.
      - read_if_gay_ 6y ago
        If you're going to get hung up on technical details, note that GP didn't ask whether it's less sketchy than average, just whether it's less sketchy. Finding concrete proof or examples is obviously hard in this subject matter (how are you going to prove something as abstract as sketchiness), but here's one observation: predatory conferences mostly only exist outside the West. To be even more concrete, two of the most infamous predatory publishers (WASET and OMICS) are based in Turkey and India respectively. You generally won't find something nearly as sketchy in the West.
        valarauko 6y ago
        >two of the most infamous predatory publishers (WASET and OMICS) are based in Turkey and India respectively Well, as an Indian postdoc working in the US, I can speak to some of these sketchy behaviours. In terms of the predatory publishers, my Indian institution had its own filters, and most labs have their own as well. For example, for a while we had an institutional restriction on submitting manuscripts to conference proceedings, with the justification that the hard time limit equals substandard peer review. In addition, for the longest time we were not allowed to submit anything to open source journals, with similar justifications. Publishing in a journal with an IF < 8 was also frowned upon, and the institution would not cover publication expenses. AFAIK other institutions had similar filters for publications. I would regard my institution as a decent, but nowhere near the best in my field in India. Who does publish in these predatory journals? Smaller, less well funded universities with desperate students, ever since the government mandated first author publications as a requirement for receiving PhD degrees.
dnautics 6y ago
Sure, I guess i should have been more specific, he was a postdoc who was from a country where getting one really awesome paper in a lab with a moderately good name (which ours was) would be an instant ticket to tenured professorship at the top academic facility in the country. That should give you an idea of the incentives at play. That doesn't necessarily make him sketchy. But he was also a sketchy human.

It's not about race, it's about the quality of the academic system, which is bad in many countries. I suppose GP intended it to compound - as in the guy was sketchy per se, and from a sketchy place.

winstont 6y ago
> the academic system, which is bad in many countries. I suppose GP intended it to compound - as in the guy was sketchy per se, and from a sketchy place. is it good here? is here considered less sketchy?
- read_if_gay_ 6y ago
  Evidently it’s not perfect here but yes, it’s less sketchy, because there’s far worse out there.
  - remram 6y ago
    All you're arguing is that it's "not the most sketchy" not that it's less sketchy than the average. And you're offering no proof or example of that either.
    - read_if_gay_ 6y ago
      If you're going to get hung up on technical details, note that GP didn't ask whether it's less sketchy than average, just whether it's less sketchy. Finding concrete proof or examples is obviously hard in this subject matter (how are you going to prove something as abstract as sketchiness), but here's one observation: predatory conferences mostly only exist outside the West. To be even more concrete, two of the most infamous predatory publishers (WASET and OMICS) are based in Turkey and India respectively. You generally won't find something nearly as sketchy in the West.
      - valarauko 6y ago
        >two of the most infamous predatory publishers (WASET and OMICS) are based in Turkey and India respectively Well, as an Indian postdoc working in the US, I can speak to some of these sketchy behaviours. In terms of the predatory publishers, my Indian institution had its own filters, and most labs have their own as well. For example, for a while we had an institutional restriction on submitting manuscripts to conference proceedings, with the justification that the hard time limit equals substandard peer review. In addition, for the longest time we were not allowed to submit anything to open source journals, with similar justifications. Publishing in a journal with an IF < 8 was also frowned upon, and the institution would not cover publication expenses. AFAIK other institutions had similar filters for publications. I would regard my institution as a decent, but nowhere near the best in my field in India. Who does publish in these predatory journals? Smaller, less well funded universities with desperate students, ever since the government mandated first author publications as a requirement for receiving PhD degrees.

dnautics 6y ago

Sure, I guess i should have been more specific, he was a postdoc who was from a country where getting one really awesome paper in a lab with a moderately good name (which ours was) would be an instant ticket to tenured professorship at the top academic facility in the country. That should give you an idea of the incentives at play. That doesn't necessarily make him sketchy. But he was also a sketchy human.