[In Depth] U.S. charges journal publisher with misleading authors
In one of the first cases of its kind, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is taking action against a journal publisher accused of deceiving its authors. FTC is asking a federal judge to order OMICS Group Inc., the publisher of hundreds of open-access journals, to stop making false and misleading claims about its pricing, editorial staff, and peer-review practices. The agency is also asking the court to consider requiring the firm to refund authors and conference participants millions of dollars in fees. The case, now before a federal judge in Las Vegas, Nevada, is sending shock waves through the traditionally self-regulated world of technical journals. "It's a shame it's the government that has to regulate the scholarly publishing industry," says Jeffrey Beall, a librarian at the University of Colorado, Denver, who has been an outspoken critic of what he calls "predatory" publishers. At stake in the case is "the...