[SOAF] Reporting serious fraud by major STM journals Natalia Koudinova 02 Mar 2004 00:31 UTC

The cross posted message below should be of interest for members of the "Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum".

In case of poor formatting see original at SPARC OA Forum url: <https://arl.org/Lists/SPARC-OAForum/Message/563.html>

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Date: Mon, 01 Mar 2004 16:48:57 +0200
From: Alexei Koudinov <sparcoaforum@neurobiologyoflipids.org>

Serious Fraud Office
Elm House
10-16 Elm Street
London
WC1X OBJ

1 March 2004

Dear Sir or Madam,

I write to <http://www.sfo.gov.uk/cases/case_referrals.asp>report serious fraud by scientific, technical and medical (STM) journals and their publishers (item 1), and associated fraud involving preslump sales of shares by Alzheimer's disease expert and a director of Ireland based Elan Corp. Dennis J. Selkoe, M.D., and other insiders of Elan totaling $40m+ (item 2).

Both issues of this apparently very serious and complex fraud are explained and documented in my written evidence "Part 1: Editorial and Publisher corruption" for inquiry on Scientific Publication by Science and Technology Committee, UK House of Commons <http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/science_and_technology_committee/scitech250204.cfm>to begin today, March 1, 2004. This document is attached as Word .doc file and quoted below:
Editorial and Publisher corruption
Written Evidence for <http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/science_and_technology_committee/scitech111203a.cfm>inquiry on Scientific Publication by Science and Technology Committee, UK House of Commons.
by A. Koudinov
Submitted 11 February 2004
[ <http://neurobiologyoflipids.org/editors/alexeikoudinov/pdfdocs/submittedletters/koudinovwrittenevidence.pdf>Full Text (Acrobat .PDF, 200K) ] [ <https://arl.org/Lists/SPARC-OAForum/Message/541.html>Discussion Followup ]

I believe that the provided evidence convincingly shows that the suspected fraud meets Serious Fraud Office (SFO) <http://www.sfo.gov.uk/cases/cases.asp>case acceptance criterion and <http://www.sfo.gov.uk/cases/guidance.asp>warrants SFO investigation.

Item 1

I request you to investigate the apparent fraud by the journals Nature (Nature Publishing Group, Macmillan Publishers Ltd.), Neuron and Cell (by Cell Press and Reed Elsevier), Brain Research (the most expensive UK library serial by Reed Elsevier), and Science (AAAS Science Europe Office, Bateman House, 82-88 Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 1LQ).

As detailed in my written evidence "the facts provided... indicate that the major worlds' general science and neuroscience journals impede not biased scientific development of the research into the causes and treatment of Alzheimer's disease, obstruct public interest and their own guidelines... It is explained how such wrongdoing... could cause a severe deterioration of at least one Alzheimer's patient in England", the matter of my call for a separate inquiry matter requested in Item 2 below.

The corrupted unacceptable practices by the above journals (as detailed in my <http://neurobiologyoflipids.org/editors/alexeikoudinov/pdfdocs/submittedletters/koudinovwrittenevidence.pdf>written evidence) harm my rights and the rights of other scientists, doctors, and patients, reserving the unbiased trusted scientific information in the journals belonging to the Scientific, Technical and Medical (STM) publishing system.

Contrary to the <https://arl.org/Lists/SPARC-OAForum/Message/539.html>Elsevier Testimony for UK inquiry on Scientific Publication, my written evidence shows that i) "editorial and publishing corruption" preclude these journals serving the consumer and public interest; ii) that they may "serve a private interest, and that [iii)] there is no working mechanism to force these journals or their publishing institutions to amend things and thus observe their own broken self-declared ethical guidelines."

I therefore believe your must intervene to stop the fraud. Additional need for this is explained in my second separate inquiry matter, summarized below and detailed in <http://neurobiologyoflipids.org/editors/alexeikoudinov/pdfdocs/submittedletters/koudinovwrittenevidence.pdf>my written evidence.

Item 2

I request SFO to investigate "whether there is a secret deal between hiding for two years experimental amyloid treatment failure, severe deterioration of Alzheimer's patient in a UK clinic, the following sales of shares by Elan Corporation [director and] Alzheimer's expert Dennis Selkoe and other Elan insiders, and the consequent disastrous turndown of Elan."

An apparent match of the above events is reported in details under the section "2.14 Alzheimer's patient severe deterioration in a UK clinic" of my written evidence for inquiry on Scientific Publication by Science and Technology Committee, UK House of Commons (attached and quoted above) and noticed in Nov 16, 2003 The Sunday Times article "<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2095-895532,00.html>Selkoe's sale of Elan shares referred to SEC".

Sincerely,

Alexei Koudinov, MD, PhD
neuroscientist and editor
http://neurobiologyoflipids.org ,
http://neurobiologyoflipids.org

Competing interest declaration: I declare that I do not have any competing financial interest. I aim free information dissemination, an unbiased development of Alzheimer's neuroscience, and safeguarding the public interest in neuroscience research. I observe the Society for Neuroscience <http://apu.sfn.org/content/Publications/Guidelines2/index.html>Guidelines for Responsible Conduct Regarding Scientific Communication. The viewpoint presented in the above letter is my personal view.