Not only are there numerous folks dedicated to its destruction as a paradigm of understanding reality, there is an entirely new phenomena.
It seems that the open access movement (to make scholarly publications freely available) afforded by the internet has facilitated an entire parallel world of pseudo-academia, complete with impressively titled conferences and journals. Many have names that are nearly identical to those of established publications and events. Here is a quote from a New York Times article.....
"The number of these journals and conferences has exploded in recent years as scientific publishing has shifted from a traditional business model for professional societies and organizations built almost entirely on subscription revenues to open access, which relies on authors or their backers to pay for the publication of papers online, where anyone can read them."
Yes, you read that correctly. The authors and presenters are charged to publish in these "journals" and present at these "conferences" and then they use them to pad their résumés.
It's bad enough that certain American politicians are working hard to undermine scientific endeavor, but does the world at large have to help?
There is hope. The journal Nature has noted “the rise of questionable operators” and has suggested that a black list be created. One such list is already available from research librarian Jeffrey Beall from the University of Colorado in Denver.
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