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NL888 Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
Does "Most of the players are murky" mean "Most of the players are depressed"?
Context:
Who's Afraid of Peer Review?
John Bohannon
A spoof paper concocted by Science reveals little or no scrutiny at many open-
access journals.
On 4 July, good news arrived in the inbox of Ocorrafoo Cobange, a biologist at the
Wassee Institute of Medicine in Asmara. It was the official letter of acceptance for a
paper he had submitted 2 months earlier to the Journal of Natural
Pharmaceuticals, describing the anticancer properties of a chemical that Cobange
had extracted from a lichen.
In fact, it should have been promptly rejected. Any reviewer with more than a high-
school knowledge of chemistry and the ability to understand a basic data plot
should have spotted the paper's short-comings immediately. Its experiments are so
hopelessly flawed that the results are meaningless.
I know because I wrote the paper. Ocorrafoo Cobange does not exist, nor does the
Wassee Institute of Medicine. Over the past 10 months, I have submitted 304
versions of the wonder drug paper to open-access journals. More than half of the
journals accepted the paper, failing to notice its fatal flaws. Beyond that headline
result, the data from this sting operation reveal the contours of an emerging Wild
West in academic publishing.
Figure
From humble and idealistic beginnings a decade ago, open-access scientific
journals have mushroomed into a global industry, driven by author publication fees
rather than traditional subscriptions. Most of the players are murky. The identity
and location of the journals' editors, as well as the financial workings of their
publishers, are often purposefully obscured. But Science's investigation casts a
powerful light. Internet Protocol
address traces within the raw headers of e-
mails sent by journal editors betray their locations. Invoices for publication fees
reveal a network of bank accounts based mostly in the developing world. And the
acceptances and rejections of the paper provide the first global snapshot of peer
review across the open-access scientific enterprise.
More:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6154/60.full
Who's Afraid of Peer Review?
John Bohannon
A spoof paper concocted by Science reveals little or no scrutiny at many open-
access journals.
On 4 July, good news arrived in the inbox of Ocorrafoo Cobange, a biologist at the
Wassee Institute of Medicine in Asmara. It was the official letter of acceptance for a
paper he had submitted 2 months earlier to the Journal of Natural
Pharmaceuticals, describing the anticancer properties of a chemical that Cobange
had extracted from a lichen.
In fact, it should have been promptly rejected. Any reviewer with more than a high-
school knowledge of chemistry and the ability to understand a basic data plot
should have spotted the paper's short-comings immediately. Its experiments are so
hopelessly flawed that the results are meaningless.
I know because I wrote the paper. Ocorrafoo Cobange does not exist, nor does the
Wassee Institute of Medicine. Over the past 10 months, I have submitted 304
versions of the wonder drug paper to open-access journals. More than half of the
journals accepted the paper, failing to notice its fatal flaws. Beyond that headline
result, the data from this sting operation reveal the contours of an emerging Wild
West in academic publishing.
Figure
From humble and idealistic beginnings a decade ago, open-access scientific
journals have mushroomed into a global industry, driven by author publication fees
rather than traditional subscriptions. Most of the players are murky. The identity
and location of the journals' editors, as well as the financial workings of their
publishers, are often purposefully obscured. But Science's investigation casts a
powerful light. Internet Protocol
address traces within the raw headers of e-mails sent by journal editors betray their locations. Invoices for publication fees
reveal a network of bank accounts based mostly in the developing world. And the
acceptances and rejections of the paper provide the first global snapshot of peer
review across the open-access scientific enterprise.
More:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6154/60.full
Top answer
NL888 Does "Most of the players are murky" mean "Most of the players are depressed"? No. 'Players' means journals in the industry.
- NL888 Does "Most of the players are murky" mean "Most of the players are depressed"?
- No.
- 'Players' means journals in the industry.
- 'Murky' is explained in the next sentence: Most of the players are murky .
- The identity and location of the journals' editors, as well as the financial workings of their publishers, are often purposefully obscured .
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2 Answers
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NL888Does "Most of the players are murky" mean "Most of the players are depressed"?No. 'Players' means journals in the industry. 'Murky' is explained in the next sentence:
Most of the players are murky. The identity and location of the journals' editors, as well as the financial workings of their
publishers, are ofte
00
No.
It is unclear who they are. Their identities are not clearly know.
It is unclear who they are. Their identities are not clearly know.
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