In an interesting and potentially significant move for the scholarly publishing world, the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada has granted a preliminary injunction against a major journal publisher and conference organizer in response to a complaint by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The injunction was granted on the basis of the Court’s analysis of evidence provided by the FTC and its finding that the FTC’s complaint, if allowed to proceed, “is likely to succeed on the merits” and that the public interest would be served by granting it.
The FTC alleges that OMICS Group and its affiliates iMedPub LLC and Conference Series Ltd have engaged in a variety of “unfair and deceptive practices with respect to the publication of online academic journals and organization of scientific conferences,” including:
•Falsely claiming to provide rigorous peer review of articles submitted for publication in their journals;
•Claiming as “editors” individuals who never received manuscripts to review or edit, or who never even agreed to be appointed as editors — some of whom say that OMICS ignored or refused their demands that they be removed from journal mastheads;
•Sending solicitations to potential authors on behalf of other academics, without the latter’s permission or knowledge;
•Giving their journals names “nearly identical to other respected journals, which has led to consumers mistakenly submitting articles to Defendants’ journal”;
•Failing to disclose publication fees to authors until after their articles had been submitted and published, then levying those fees on the authors, continuing to demand payment after the authors had requested that their articles be withdrawn;
•Misrepresenting the Impact Factors of their journals;
•Falsely claiming that their journals are included in prestigious professional and academic indexes;
•Organizing putatively academic or professional conferences and seeking to increase attendance by falsely advertising the participation of respected individuals (who have, in some cases, had to resort to legal action in order to get their names removed from the conference advertisements).
In response to the FTC complaint, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss, providing evidence in defense of their business practices. The FTC responded to the defendants’ motion, the defendants provided a rejoinder, and after evaluating all of the motions, statements, and replies, the Court granted the FTC’s motion for preliminary injunction and denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss.
more at: https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2017/12/04/federal-trade-commission-national-institutes-health-take-action-predatory-publishing-practices/