Sham Journal Accepts Totally Absurd But Completely Appropriate Paper

I love that this happened. It’s not exactly a library shenanigan, but it’s library-related. Well done, David Mazières and Eddie Kohler! They submitted a sham paper (full of swears!) to a sham journal in 2005 to make a point (and make a lot of people laugh).

Recently, another scholar, Peter Vamplew, sent the same sham paper to a different sham journal and received an acceptance (contingent on receipt of $150). The journal even sent a sham “reviewer report,” re-posted in full at Scholarly Open Access. Apparently, the sham paper is “excellent”!

Thanks, Steve Lawson and io9 (from whom I stole the headline).