How predatory academic journals endanger science | Bradley Allf | TEDxNCState

This scientist deliberately published the plot of the TV series Breaking Bad in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. In doing so, he proved that the journal was a fraud. But he soon uncovered just how scary the world of fake science really is. Bradley Allf is an award-winning science communicator whose work can be seen in publications such as the Smithsonian, Scientific American, Undark and Atlas Obscura. Bradley is proud of his accomplishments in unearthing academic fraud: publishing the plot of the tv series Breaking Bad in a peer-reviewed scientific journal to learn about disinformation and epistemology. When he’s not working on his dissertation on public engagement in science at NC State (or trolling duplicitous research journals) he enjoys mountain biking, rock climbing and seeking out wild landscapes in unexpected places. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

[@abhinabachakraborty5161]

Kudos to this person who worked so hard to publish a fake paper in a fake journal.

[@7th_Heaven]

Yes.

[@bocelott]

lol

[@lifereadguy9933]

At least Jesse learned a thing or two about chemistry with the "hands on" approach

[@nvgatnvgat]

I was one of your victims. I was invited to publish an article in a magazine for this David Publishing Company. I looked for more informations about this magazine and I couldn't find anything and this was a weird sinal for me. So, then I found this video and i really want to thank you about this educational role. I would definitely be an easy target as I am not a native English speaker. And a fun thing about that is, this article it was submitted to an famous congress in my area and only there. How they can get this information? Is there any possiblities that there is someone inside leaking these articles? If so, it's a huge problem.

[@melanie8380]

This is hilarious! Loved that he professionally trolled this scamming journal

[@DroneRajesh]

Trolled meaning hindi

[@DroneRajesh]

Tell me

[@DroneRajesh]

Melanie

[@navalfa7291]

The Fact that he went through all that to prove this shows the level of Narcissism that exist in the Academic research world.

[@ashwinjacob7336]

This is sad! These kinda journals are rising up and gaining attention due to the pressure faced by faculties and research scholars who are forced to publish coz they just get fired or stay in a PhD program for years together.

[@Armz69]

True too

[@Chem-iu5jx]

I would get fired if I would publish in one of thise journals

[@navalfa7291]

Mainstream journals are no better. Imagine you do all the work, the research, funding applications and then pay a fees to publish and peer review your research. Only for the journal to sell your article for 28 Euros and you make no money out of it.

[@shirophoenix01]

The research paper he sent them is gold 😂 It is messed up that this is happening tho....

[@MP-xx1kb]

Flourishing of theses journals is caused by the vanity of members of academia, their scientific “community.” Simple economics.

[@edithmuthoni1396]

Great insights there people should not not believe every information that is published online without validating if it is authentic and credible information😊

[@Cora.T]

Oh there where actual people present, they where so quiet eventhough he was pretty funny I figured it was an empty venue

[@PublicScienceLab]

Auditorium was mostly empty except event organizers, unfortunately. Cursed pandemic! If only we'd axed more 5g radio towers!!

[@Cora.T]

@@PublicScienceLab so long as they appreciated your effort :). Hahaha, we might be better of using mask guns to get people to wear masks 😂

[@Flash_345]

@@PublicScienceLab Hey if you have more of these fake articles, I'll be happy to send it to the predatory journals that send me an email.

[@ask.socrates]

Great work, Bradley, in finding an ingenious way to highlight the threat of predatory publishing, like a scientific Abbie Hoffman. The predatory publisher that approached you in 2020, also approached me the same year, and I was likewise skeptical. I have been researching this predatory publisher myself with more alarming results.

[@BigSp3nda]

400 years slavery, let's go

[@Pier-wy6dd]

To debunk a predatory journal is quite easy, Go to the link and check "terms and conditions", there is a fee (a few buck) to pay. Real Scientific journal are completely different.

[@wiktorpiechota2327]

sometimes maintream science papers fare no better, they publish only positive results or papers of friends from the branch they drink with

[@wanyuhuang8802]

Publication bias....a more severe problem for smaller studies....(which are more likely, to have less funding support)

[@SanyLiew]

Empower the real scientist and not the politicians (use mouth to work), use rule and regulations crack down these issues.

[@7th_Heaven]

Oh my gosh you gave them the blueprint for Palworld!

[@gerry40404]

The problem is not only disinformation, but also, that researchers who accidentally submit to a predatory journal often are forced even high fees to withdraw the paper and are threatened. If they publish there, they have to pay thousands of dollars for destroying their reputation. It happened to me with my first paper, but I fortunately did not sign a copyright declaration.

[@joshuastephenkingsly]

Scientists: We don't have even a minute to respond to prospecting research students who approach us for a research opportunity. Also Scientists: This week I'm gonna make a funny and creative fake research paper to entertain my spam emailer!!!! ---- Just for fun! Kinda pissed off right now after spending so much time emailing prospective PIs with personalized motivation letters only to be left without a response.

[@sarthakhajirnis1908]

Lol.. Hold on there buddy, we are all in the same boat..

[@abdullthe1651]

Very enlightening. I'll try on my side.

[@genreportero]

Muy buena presentación. La revistas depredadoras han hecho mucho daño en esta pandemia

[@readyforknowing3009]

Good talk

[@hansperil]

Blockchain based peer review

[@HeavyJEdgar]

What a hero!

[@wanyuhuang8802]

I have received hundreds of those spam emails already, after the 1st time being a corresponding author. Just soooooo annoying! One of them (which I received today) told me at the end: "if you find this kind of email annoying, you can unsubscribe." Yet there's no way to unsubscribe. I have no comment on this.

[@deziistoner]

I know this is very satirical but very serious, but why is this not a comedy special in itself! 😭😂🖤🖤🖤

[@WesternAustraliaNowAndThen]

You have to hand it to the scammers, they certainly are an inventive bunch...

[@jacksonboone5877]

This one's for you, Lili Wilson

[@gsmarkham]

Love your paper :)

[@hilalsuheda]

Please add turkish subtitles. Unfortunately, my English is not enough for me to understand and I would love to watch

[@thorostudios6263]

LEGEND!!

[@ph7klw1976]

Nowadays fake papers from paper mills tartgeting legitimate journals can look so real........

[@MrBananasundae]

Delivery could have been much faster with fewer pauses, but story was hilarious and message solid

[@mothiurrahman6401]

Entertaining

[@precisedime1377]

Wasn't the New England Journal one of the ones which was *suppressing* studies coming out about the effectiveness of using other anti-viral agents? I may very well be wrong but that name rings a bell from about a year ago.

[@playa4286]

супер выступление.Очень актуально.

[@PhysicsNerd25]

The word "predatory" in the title is superfluous.

[@jasonali4122]

Hi delivery is painfully slow. Crank the playback speed up to 1.5 to get through it.

[@user-xv2dl5pi5y]

This is gold LOL

[@alejandromoureabelenda]

Come on! You can't be serious. You should be nastily rich to be wasting your money like that.

[@ishootlazerslol]

is this MDPI journal? omfg

[@kulejoseph8766]

u are very ryt

[@user-gk6rl4yu6i]

귀한영상 감사합니다ㆍ솜결

[@ziyu_hadhi8621]

Have any malayalees watching here👍

[@maurygoldblat8982]

12:39 Didn't age well. Turns out YOU were a part of the problem

[@williamschacht7076]

Is this illegal?

[@trastolillo4219]

Dilo tata, dilo.

[@Heyokasireniei468sxso]

great information bad charisma .

[@alanwright4628]

This guy seems more like an actor.

[@Coconut-219]

" Real journals actually go through the essential legwork of reviewing scientific studies before they are sent out into the world... " - So basically none of the current authoritative scientific institutions are real journals ?

[@Vetsolo]

Interesting

[@mamussingakrumpans6924]

👏🏻

[@KrunoslavStifter]

Science and TED should not be in the same sentence, unless you are trying to demonstrate contradiction in terms. lol

[@mackerel2002]

And why is that? This talk is clearly discussing a problem associated with science or the mechanism by which it is made public.

[@KrunoslavStifter]

@@mackerel2002 Well I can tell you one thing. If this guy was not lefty , he would not be allowed on TED. So science is not really about science, its scientisms of lefty persuasion. When was the last time you heard anti Trans talk on TED? Hmm. Me neither. Why? Because scientism. The science is settled on Trans lunacy, even if its impossible. So you will pardon me from not having any trust in anyone talking on TED at this point. Now, why is not James Lindsay doing this talk, he did this with feminism and proved how wrong it is many moons ago. Oh, that's right he is not politically correct for TED. So please, don't be naive, TED is not about science, its about politically correct science, known as scientism.

[@zachrobhan]

I was thinking the same thing. James Lindsey scammed actual journals with leftest nonsense.

[@drmonamalik5901]

👍👍

[@andykaggwa7233]

.

[@thebeardblogger]

❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

[@georgesos]

Excellent talk.( albeit a bit slow).

[@NATURESBEAUTY]

😃😃😃😄👍🏻

[@drmonamalik5901]

😃😃😃😃

[@shesforthestreets7212]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@user-zb3op6vz3c]

The analogy goes like this. Imagine that you are a student about to take your A-level mathematics official examination in next 2 weeks. You saw a new mathematics textbook from a different publisher in a bookshop. You bought the book and returned home. One day around 5.30 pm, you attempt to do 5 questions from the textbook, you selected 5 random questions from these 5 chapters: Matrices, Complex numbers, Vectors, Differentiation and Integration. You spend about 25 minutes doing the five mathematics questions, scribbling down your working on 5 different sheet of papers. The time is about 6 pm, you stopped and went out to play basketball with your friends. You returned home around 7.30 pm. You took a bath and had a dinner with your family. You returned back to your study table and checked your scribbled down 5 answers against the book's answers section. To your horror, you found out that you have got it all wrongs. But you said "Hey, I have published 5 papers, right? See, I am holding 5 sheet of papers". Another student somewhere out there, did the same feat, but he attempted 2 questions from 2 chapters: Differential Equations and Numerical Methods and he got it all rights, a 2 out of 2 and you got 0 out of 5. But you said, "Hey I published more papers than him, 5, he only got 2. I deserved to be an assistant professor, right? If I keep on publishing more, I get to be promoted to be a full tenured university professor, keep on doing this, then onward to become a university president or chancellor or maybe a future director of a research institute, right?" You found out that your friend Thomas, did the same feat, he also got it all wrongs, 0 out of 5 from the same 5 chapters. But this is okay, since you are going to put a reference at the end of your 5 papers, citing Thomas's work and Thomas returned the favor and did the same, citing your work. Now you have them all: published papers, citations, H-index, impact factors, research grants, etc...

[@guelo757]

WOW that was a rough one. Comes across as fake, irrelevance of stories to make a weak point at the literal very end. Just like the fake journals, perhaps?

[@mackerel2002]

You think that a talk about how fake journals are used to undermine real science is irrelevant. I'm not actually sure what an irrelevance of stories is, like a murder of crows?

[@dust4546]

We need an open minded scientific community.Too many people want to stick to the same accepted principles of theories.That's what they are, theories.Hi open minded that absolutely anything is possible and this universe that we know so little about. Much love.

[@WesternAustraliaNowAndThen]

LOL, the reason they stick to 'accepted' theories is because they work and an academic 'theory' is not the same as something someone just thought up. Absolutely anything is not possible, there are impossibilities. What we need to be aware of is scientists who can sometimes get wedded to an idea that is incorrect. Thankfully, peer review usually sorts that out fairly quickly.

[@dust4546]

@@WesternAustraliaNowAndThen I myself believe that anything is possible. Just because we all look at something and agree on it doesn't make it a fact. When you have science that shows observation affects reality and the fact that everything we see is in "theory", a hallucination and that things react on a micro level when not being observed, how can one really know anything that requires visual confirmations? I understand that there are rules to science and what we perceive and and as a collective agree that this is reality and those are the rules; I am just looking on the fact that we are a species of amnesia and do not have an answer for this experience we are supposedly having.

[@dust4546]

@@WesternAustraliaNowAndThen also i 100% agree about academics being wed to an ide or theory.

[@Coconut-219]

" Too many people want to stick to the same accepted principles of theories." Cult of personality: *"Allow me to introduce myself!"*

[@Bulozay]

W

[@jayeshrathod3643]

Hy

[@UNKNOWN-yd3bk]

Third comment :)

[@funtimefoxythefox5791]

To bad it came out as facts about the virus.

[@archenema6792]

I applaud his work, but the bio in the description seems like a troll, as well. If he's a mountain biker, he certainly doesn't do it in Raleigh-Durham. That place is infamous for leading the world in assaults and murders committed against bicyclists, and by a HUGE margin. If you doubt that, just google "bicyclist assaulted in Durham" (or Raleigh). You'll get page after page of links to some of the most horrific news stories you'll ever read or watch.

[@logansmith6215]

“Like the virus was started in a lab” 😂 arrogance is the problem with these scientists lol this didn’t age well 😵‍💫

[@lxMaDnEsSxl]

yup. I was looking for a video looking at fake studies published in REAL journals (and suppression of real studies), not fake journals.

[@LightVortexMatrixStudy]

This is misinformation yes some magic should be hidden for safety but teaching children of light to fall into darkness unnatural knowledge replaced with lies is not the way. He is unworthy.

[@jumpinjack889]

So, predatory TedTalk. Well done. Care to edit your nonsense?

[@TehPwnographer]

Wat? They aren’t an academic journal.

[@jumpinjack889]

@@TehPwnographer His inaccurate declaration about origination of virus and insinuating that a president lied about this. That certainly didn't age well. He should have never gone political, he just becomes a participant in what he intended to complain about. Plus he is about the dullest speaker ever. Scientist, lmao.

[@Welther47]

13:03 Damn muslim fanatics

[@bruceleeyourface3253]

This is incredibly boring

[@bruceleeyourface3253]

@@Dimitris_Balf im a scientist 😹😹😹

[@bruceleeyourface3253]

@@Dimitris_Balf why do you like me so much? Stop replying, I love taking the time of a nobody 😂

[@bruceleeyourface3253]

@@Dimitris_Balf tldr 😂

[@navalfa7291]

The Fact that he went through all that to prove this shows the level of Narcissism that exist in the Academic research world.

[@OrangeScythe]

boring and not news to anyone - same thing happened in the science wars of the 90s