N – Editor quits after hoax

The editor of an open access journal has quit after a fake computer generated paper passed the journal’s peer review process and was accepted. The Open Information Science Journal (www.bentham.org/open/toiscij/) would have charged the authors $800 to publish the hoax, which was submitted under false names. The authors claim to have wanted to test the editorial standards of the publisher, Bentham Science Publishers. Alex Williamson, former publishing director at the BMJ, suggested that journals vary in quality and that poor ones are more likely to be open access: “Any idiot can start a journal on the web.” (www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jun/18/science-editor-resigns-hoax-article)