An international publishing house, which publishes more than 230 peer-reviewed scientific journals, has banned publication of papers authored by a teacher with Indian Institute of Technology Indore as he did not clear pending dues. Hindawi Publishing Corporation (HPC) — a commercial publisher of scientific, technical, and medical (STM) literature banned assistant professor Hem Chandra Jha, head of Discipline of Biosciences and Biomedical Engineering at IIT Indore. Journal of Oncology, brought out by HPC, had published a manuscript by Jha for which he was billed USD 750 in February 2017.
Jha did not pay the article processing charges despite repeated reminders by HPC through emails. Being pursued extensively, the IIT Indore faculty member agreed to clear the dues by August 31, 2017 but did not keep his words. Resultantly, HPC banned publication of manuscripts authored by Jha informing him that the ban will remain in place till he clears the dues. During in-house communications at IIT Indore lately, the information about the ban became a hot topic of discussion and details about it trickled out.
Replying to queries regarding the ban, Jha hid behind an excuse that he did not make the payment for the publication as he later found that it was not a reputed journal and getting the manuscript published in it was a mistake on his part. Jha also claimed that he had written to the HPC to waive off the dues but they denied and he refrained from making payment. “This is a financial misconduct. The admission by Jha also brings disgrace to the institute too,” said a faculty member of IIT Indore wishing anonymity.
Journal of Oncology, which publishes original research articles, review articles, and clinical studies related to cancer, has an impact factor of 4.5. It is also listed on SCImago. Besides, its publishing group has an editorial board of nearly 35 academics from countries including USA, Japan, UK, Italy, Canada, Turkey, UAE and Switzerland.
