Academic Laundering/Fraud (I should start my own Journal...)

[52-80 19158]

Erick C Jones Sr, recently minted Dean of Engineering at Uni Nevada-Reno.  Formerly associate dean at UT Arlington and senior science advisor in the State Department. Aggie BS (1993). UH PhD (2003)

Erick C Jones Jr, current lab director and engineering assistant professor at UT Arlington.  UT Austin PhD (2021).

Junior's publication history is necessarily thin.

Many of them seem to be co-authored with Senior (EC Jones, E Jones, ECJ Jones), and in something called the International Supply Chain Tech Journal.

This Journal claims to be peer-reviewed.

Except on the Editorial Board of the journal is ... "Dr Erick Jones Jr" (and other UT Arlington people).

The journal is published by PWD Groups Inc, which is a firm based in Arlington TX owned by... Erick Jones.

Here are all of the articles in the February 2024 edition

 

How about January 2024? 

(You might recognize Mamun Habib as visiting scientist at UTA and Editor in Chief of ISCTJ lol)

it goes on and on

 

And just so you understand the scientific rigour of this peer-reviewed journal, here is the ENTIRETY of an article authored by Erick senior in the Dec 2022 print.

 

I should found my own journal and inflate my h-index through the roof.

[Steel Shank 9425]

Well, I’ll be!

[52-80 19158]

ive written commercial white papers that were far more academic...

[South Austin 52504]

I am so fucking outraged.

[KYHorn 17057]

Lol at "using science"

[Guest]

Hard to believe that ever happened with the lack of cash flow in the academic world.

[52-80 19158]

9 minutes ago, slorch said:

Hard to believe that ever happened with the lack of cash flow in the academic world.

Senior draws 400k a year from nevada and however much from the state department (not sure if position still active)

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

Senior draws 400k a year from nevada and however much from the state department (not sure if position still active)

Oh, I most certainly was being sarcastic.

[52-80 19158]

14 minutes ago, slorch said:

Oh, I most certainly was being sarcastic.

I know. And I know this sort of publication stuffing is very common (happens in industry too), im just flabbergasted at how blatant and shameless this particular example is. 

[huge 3793]

Is this another reason that college tuition has increased at 10x inflation?  

[Mrs Whiggins 13050]

5 hours ago, 52-80 said:

Erick C Jones Sr, recently minted Dean of Engineering at Uni Nevada-Reno.  Formerly associate dean at UT Arlington and senior science advisor in the State Department. Aggie BS (1993). UH PhD (2003)

Erick C Jones Jr, current lab director and engineering assistant professor at UT Arlington.  UT Austin PhD (2021).

Thank you for calling it like it is (thread title) and not Playing. The. Game. which is what Erick senior and junior would likely say. In most academic endeavors, the annual review assesses three areas: teaching, service, and research. The last is the one by which the most $$, the most prestige, the administrative appointments, the gravitas, and the respect is placed. It is a system that once was admired world-wide that has been corrupted over and over again. Sad.

[MissingInAction 25076]

Meh, I'll do my own research.

[52-80 19158]

57 minutes ago, huge said:

Is this another reason that college tuition has increased at 10x inflation?  

this helps

[Mrs Whiggins 13050]

I don't know; but I would wonder how much additional staffing (in your graph it is staff in public elementary and secondary i.e. K-12) is due to the increased awareness and regulations regarding student services--such as special needs, behavioral and ESL support and so on?  At the higher ed level (not in the graph), some of those needs would follow students along with TItle IX and ADA compliance, NCAA administrative compliance, career counseling staff, mental health services, first gen support, and testing services just off the top of my head. Most of those services were nonexistent when I was in school save for Title IX, NCAA, and rudimentary career and mental health staff.

I was reading not too long ago about how many students bring emotional support animals with them to school. Not service animals (separate category) but each student has to fill out an application etc. Which means someone has to review that, etc etc.

[YChang 3444]

Peer review process isn't infallible. Also doesn't help that it's been commercialized, also for a lot of reviewer they don't get paid their time to put in the work. 

[52-80 19158]

all i needed in school was a student center with a bowling alley, and a bar

[Fudge Nuggets 19190]

God damnit, if you can't trust International Supply Chain Tech Journal; then who can you trust?

[Laxtonto 12080]

I am somewhat jaded in my viewpoints in this area because I am an Associate Editor of a reputable journal. Also, I do most of my research either in Business or Industrial Engineering journals.  

 

When it comes to journals, there are no rules about journals only rules about if the journal counts as "quality" for the tenure process.

Is it backed by a major publisher (Elsevier, Emerald, Wiley. etc)? no...

Is it backed by a major society (CCSMP, OR Society, etc)? no...

Since its title supply chain, is it listed in the ABDC list?  no...

Is it Cablles listed at all? no....

In this case it would not be considered a viable journal for most business schools in Texas for tenure.

 

So now is it considered a predatory journal or is it just a bullshit journal housed by the university? Looking through it and checking on the various journal ranking groups, it isn't cosidered predatory (ie pay for play) so it is obvious just a small inhouse journal that is used to help push recognition for the college or program.

What is funnier to me in their call for papers is this:

Quote

Dr. Erick Jones Jr., University of texas at Austin, United States of America

If you cant get UT right in the boilerplate...

 

Edited February 7 by Laxtonto

[Armybrat 40844]

31 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

I don't know; but I would wonder how much additional staffing (in your graph it is staff in public elementary and secondary i.e. K-12) is due to the increased awareness and regulations regarding student services--such as special needs, behavioral and ESL support and so on?  At the higher ed level (not in the graph), some of those needs would follow students along with TItle IX and ADA compliance, NCAA administrative compliance, career counseling staff, mental health services, first gen support, and testing services just off the top of my head. Most of those services were nonexistent when I was in school save for Title IX, NCAA, and rudimentary career and mental health staff.

I was reading not too long ago about how many students bring emotional support animals with them to school. Not service animals (separate category) but each student has to fill out an application etc. Which means someone has to review that, etc etc.

That’s what happens when the federal government gets involved with local education, plus lawyers coming to parent/teacher conferences.

[Laxtonto 12080]

1 hour ago, huge said:

Is this another reason that college tuition has increased at 10x inflation?  

State and Federal funding has dropped from 40% to less than 10% for most schools and yet the state and fed has mandated a massive bloat in required staff to be viable for the students to receive financial aid.

So for your students to have the privilege to get gouged on student loans, they had to double the administrative staff and yet still cut everyone funding... There are virtually no offsets and so instead all of the costs go right to the cost of tuition.

[52-80 19158]

2 hours ago, huge said:

Is this another reason that college tuition has increased at 10x inflation?  

I had read an argument that tuition growth has been overexaggerated due to the "sticker price" of colleges being artificially inflated to game admissions and rankings.  Institutions jack up their sticker price and escalate the grants to give the impression of generosity and entice enrollment due to the discount. 

The BLS, which is one of the primary sources of official economic data, says this about their survey method:

https://www.bls.gov/cpi/factsheets/college-tuition.htm

College tuition is eligible to be priced, including adjustments for various types of student financial aid such as scholarships and grants. The CPI first began tracking the price of tuition adjusted by financial aid in 2003. Probability sampling techniques are used to determine if scholarships or grants should be included when pricing tuition for a specific college. All college tuition quotes price student tuition and fixed fees; selected quotes are additionally be adjusted by financial aid. Since financial aid data for the current academic year is not always readily available at the time of pricing, the CPI currently accepts financial aid data that is no older than 1 academic year.

 

But when you look at their data series, the measured price actually accelerated in 2003 instead of dampened... so who the fuck knows

[TwiceHorn 31470]

57 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

I don't know; but I would wonder how much additional staffing (in your graph it is staff in public elementary and secondary i.e. K-12) is due to the increased awareness and regulations regarding student services--such as special needs, behavioral and ESL support and so on?  At the higher ed level (not in the graph), some of those needs would follow students along with TItle IX and ADA compliance, NCAA administrative compliance, career counseling staff, mental health services, first gen support, and testing services just off the top of my head. Most of those services were nonexistent when I was in school save for Title IX, NCAA, and rudimentary career and mental health staff.

I was reading not too long ago about how many students bring emotional support animals with them to school. Not service animals (separate category) but each student has to fill out an application etc. Which means someone has to review that, etc etc.

Another huge factor is the permeation of IT in most aspects of education. 

[Brisketexan 105139]

Interestingly enough, I have concluded that my numerous posts on this site, because they reflect my years of accumulated wisdom and brilliance, constitute academic research papers.  And because you degenerates are my peers (God, how embarrassing), those papers are "peer reviewed."  Conclusion: I am one of them most published academic geniuses in history, and I should be the dean of something.  The College of Muledick and This Threat is Worthless Without Pics, or something like that.

[RDCanecutter 26442]

1 hour ago, 52-80 said:

this helps

And how much of that increase in teaching staff is one tenured professor retiring, and being replaced by 2-3 new adjunct gig-workers?

Edited February 7 by RDCanecutter

[TwiceHorn 31470]

Well, it does appear that Erick Jones, pere et fils, are the rara avis in the form of graduate-degree-holding African-Americans in STEM.

The younger Jones, while perhaps not published in the most prestigious journals, seems to push his "content" to a lot of platforms, including some fairly serious and prestigious places.

Rightly or wrongly, but I suspect more rightly than wrongly, a lot of black academics probably feel like they're on the outside looking in.  Because this isn't outright fraud, more power to em.

[52-80 19158]

11 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Rightly or wrongly, but I suspect more rightly than wrongly, a lot of black academics probably feel like they're on the outside looking in.  Because this isn't outright fraud, more power to em.

The father owns a company…that publishes a journal…that claims to be legitimate (they themselves described it as so)…wherein some 70% of the content is authored is authored by him and/or his son…and 90% if you include the editorial board (who are UTa colleagues). 
 

And you dont think thats fraudulent? Or at the least hugely unethical for people who hold academic positions in public universities?

 

You can read every article yourself. Heres one authored by the editor in chief. 
https://isctj.com/index.php/isctj/article/view/285

Heres another from the editor and the Joneses

https://isctj.com/index.php/isctj/article/view/285
 

Another great one below, must be from a friend

[CooterBrown 18012]

[Samson's Wig 3192]

1 hour ago, Laxtonto said:

State and Federal funding has dropped from 40% to less than 10% for most schools and yet the state and fed has mandated a massive bloat in required staff to be viable for the students to receive financial aid.

So for your students to have the privilege to get gouged on student loans, they had to double the administrative staff and yet still cut everyone funding... There are virtually no offsets and so instead all of the costs go right to the cost of tuition.

Layer on your facts all you want, but we all know it's just that older generations worked harder to pay their own way through school, and kids these days are soft.  It has nothing to do with state university tuition being subsidized at 90% or more for boomers and less than 10% now.   Those good folks would have never accepted a government handout. We know this to be true.

[ImissWallyPryor 9046]

2 hours ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

I don't know; but I would wonder how much additional staffing (in your graph it is staff in public elementary and secondary i.e. K-12) is due to the increased awareness and regulations regarding student services--such as special needs, behavioral and ESL support and so on?  At the higher ed level (not in the graph), some of those needs would follow students along with TItle IX and ADA compliance, NCAA administrative compliance, career counseling staff, mental health services, first gen support, and testing services just off the top of my head. Most of those services were nonexistent when I was in school save for Title IX, NCAA, and rudimentary career and mental health staff.

I was reading not too long ago about how many students bring emotional support animals with them to school. Not service animals (separate category) but each student has to fill out an application etc. Which means someone has to review that, etc etc.

It’s not nothing, but probably a very small share of the 134% increase in non-teaching staff. My older sister was a human services professor (not exactly a segment of professors known to rage against bloat), and she complained about the unnecessary (non-teaching) staffing at colleges. 

[Nivek 16930]

B.S. journals are nothing new.  It is inevitable outcome when professors are required to publish x number of article/year.   If you are in a niche research, your more prestigious journals may only offer 1 option a year to publish in it, otherwise you have to select an alternative, maybe one that is more industry focused, or one that is a few tiers down in prestige.   Not having read the material or the journal in question (or the article posted) it is possible that someone is trying to create a new journal and is looking to fill it with their own work as they try to get it off the ground.  It would make sense if that research area was more focused as well.  

 

 

 

[52-80 19158]

35 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

 

Lol this woman is an assistant professor at UTa, and this is about all she has her name to. 
 

who cares? valid question. its not criminal and dont make shit to 99.9% of the world. If you are affiliated with the university, this is hugely embarrassing conduct

[Frank Drebin 5639]

31 minutes ago, Samson's Wig said:

Layer on your facts all you want, but we all know it's just that older generations worked harder to pay their own way through school, and kids these days are soft.  It has nothing to do with state university tuition being subsidized at 90% or more for boomers and less than 10% now.   Those good folks would have never accepted a government handout. We know this to be true.

Inflation adjusted public funding of higher education is up almost 200% since 1977.  The number of students in higher education has increased about 70% since that time.  So the per capita inflation adjusted spend is significantly higher than it was 45 years ago when Boomers were in college.

 

The state never came close to funding 90% of higher education.

 

If you look at this, the tuition piece has been pretty close to constant for the last 30 years (when most of us were in college).

[Genco 3040]

57 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

The father owns a company…that publishes a journal…that claims to be legitimate (they themselves described it as so)…wherein some 70% of the content is authored is authored by him and/or his son…and 90% if you include the editorial board (who are UTa colleagues). 
 

And you dont think thats fraudulent? Or at the least hugely unethical for people who hold academic positions in public universities?

 

You can read every article yourself. Heres one authored by the editor in chief. 
https://isctj.com/index.php/isctj/article/view/285

Heres another from the editor and the Joneses

https://isctj.com/index.php/isctj/article/view/285
 

Another great one below, must be from a friend

[Newdoc 3440]

Universities live in their own bubble without any true outside accountability. These organization would never survive in a regular business setting (i.e. restaurants, salons, etc.) so you get a massive academic circle jerk with snake oil sales people grifting parents and the government for way too much funding for too little value. When I read about college bloat and loose money I think about the doctors that fleece easy to scam entities like Medicare but get caught and do jail time when they should have gone into academics. 

[Fudge Nuggets 19190]

I guess OP is butthurt over this because his article was not accepted for publication. 

[Laxtonto 12080]

18 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

Lol this woman is an assistant professor at UTa, and this is about all she has her name to. 
 

who cares? valid question. its not criminal and dont make shit to 99.9% of the world. If you are affiliated with the university, this is hugely embarrassing conduct

What does piss me off is that my publication history destroys that but UTA would never hire me. Applied to UTA many times and not even a courtesy conference interview from UTA...

Politics in academia are weird...

 

Maybe I need to set up a thread on the nerds board about coming up with a set of Surly led articles, just for the fuck of it..

[Samson's Wig 3192]

10 minutes ago, Frank Drebin said:

Inflation adjusted public funding of higher education is up almost 200% since 1977.  The number of students in higher education has increased about 70% since that time.  So the per capita inflation adjusted spend is significantly higher than it was 45 years ago when Boomers were in college.

 

The state never came close to funding 90% of higher education.

 

If you look at this, the tuition piece has been pretty close to constant for the last 30 years (when most of us were in college).

Please don't bring facts to an Internet argument, sir.

[YGIFS 19450]

I'm disappointed in this place.  40 posts in and nobody has done the 'Office Space' meme, "Uh sorry sir, I do not know anything about any academic laundering!" 

There's a lot of bloat to be sure.  But wait until you guys see how much a private university-The University of Austin-has gotten via a recommendation from the THECB to the state.  And they haven't conferred a single degree yet and they're about to get 8 figures of cash with zero strings attached.  

All of it is a long confidence game.  But the good news, at least a handful of the students actually learn some shit and have fun doing it.

[Incredulity 11671]

25 minutes ago, Newdoc said:

Universities live in their own bubble without any true outside accountability. These organization would never survive in a regular business setting (i.e. restaurants, salons, etc.) so you get a massive academic circle jerk with snake oil sales people grifting parents and the government for way too much funding for too little value. When I read about college bloat and loose money I think about the doctors that fleece easy to scam entities like Medicare but get caught and do jail time when they should have gone into academics. 

I know what will fix it.

Make it "free".

massiveeyeroll.gif

[MonkeyDoughnut 10235]

34 minutes ago, Frank Drebin said:

Inflation adjusted public funding of higher education is up almost 200% since 1977.  The number of students in higher education has increased about 70% since that time.  So the per capita inflation adjusted spend is significantly higher than it was 45 years ago when Boomers were in college.

 

The state never came close to funding 90% of higher education.

 

If you look at this, the tuition piece has been pretty close to constant for the last 30 years (when most of us were in college).

That tuition number seems to get used like our property tax rate number.  Doesn't tell the whole story (or change).

[52-80 19158]

45 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

I guess OP is butthurt over this because his article was not accepted for publication. 

Spoke too soon.  The preprint is out

[Incredulity 11671]

that seems kind of redundant

[Pancho 44803]

5 hours ago, huge said:

Is this another reason that college tuition has increased at 10x inflation?  

 

3 hours ago, Laxtonto said:

State and Federal funding has dropped from 40% to less than 10% for most schools and yet the state and fed has mandated a massive bloat in required staff to be viable for the students to receive financial aid.

So for your students to have the privilege to get gouged on student loans, they had to double the administrative staff and yet still cut everyone funding... There are virtually no offsets and so instead all of the costs go right to the cost of tuition.

 

The increase in tuition is directly related to a.) less funding from the state and b.) keeping up with infrastructure so you college campus is attractive to students.

There’s also a c.) increase in programs that are new (in general) and updating programs to fit the student of today and the future. But it’s mostly because of a.) above.

Does admin staff account to the tuition increase? Ehh, not directly when compared to a, b, and c above; however, the increase in administrative staff is because of the amount of work required by states, BoRs, and accrediting boards to keep the college open or certain programs going. That shit is what most of my time being a dean is about. 

[Js1 85336]

1 hour ago, Newdoc said:

Universities live in their own bubble without any true outside accountability. These organization would never survive in a regular business setting (i.e. restaurants, salons, etc.)

What is the fascination with making things that are not supposed to be profit-driven businesses (universities, the government) function like businesses?

 

[Pancho 44803]

1 hour ago, Newdoc said:

Universities live in their own bubble without any true outside accountability. These organization would never survive in a regular business setting (i.e. restaurants, salons, etc.) so you get a massive academic circle jerk with snake oil sales people grifting parents and the government for way too much funding for too little value. When I read about college bloat and loose money I think about the doctors that fleece easy to scam entities like Medicare but get caught and do jail time when they should have gone into academics. 

 

In what way do colleges and universities not have accountability? They (mostly) aren’t for-profit institutions, and they/we are held accountability by various governing bodies. 

[BehoId, The Underminer! 11669]

31 minutes ago, Incredulity said:

that seems kind of redundant

wordcount minimums

[52-80 19158]

14 minutes ago, Js1 said:

What is the fascination with making things that are not supposed to be profit-driven businesses (universities, the government) function like businesses?

 

Because the profit-driven mechanism of businesses requires being competitive and accountable. 
 

Hope that helps. 

[Incredulity 11671]

17 minutes ago, Pancho said:

 

In what way do colleges and universities not have accountability? They (mostly) aren’t for-profit institutions, and they/we are held accountability by various governing bodies. 

1:25 to 1:38 sums it up succinctly

[tigol 2398]

Because the profit-driven mechanism of businesses requires being competitive and accountable. 
 
Hope that helps. 

Accountability. Yes, that’s what comes to mind.

[Dahobbs 17534]

27 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

Because the profit-driven mechanism of businesses requires being competitive and accountable. 
 

Hope that helps. 

Yeah, we've never seen profit driven entities not be held accountable for their actions. Oh, wait...