''Pattern Recognition in Physics'' was an open-access journal originally published by

Copernicus Publications Copernicus Publications (also: Copernicus GmbH) is a publisher of scientific literature based in Göttingen, Germany. Founded in 1994, Copernicus Publications currently publishes 28 peer-reviewed open access scientific journals and other publicat ...

which was established in March 2013 and terminated in January 2014. The

editors-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

were Sid-Ali Ouadfeul (

Algerian Petroleum Institute The Algerian Petroleum Institute ( ar, المعهد الجزائري للبترول, french: Institut Algérien du Pétrole), is a national graduate institute of petroleum engineering located in Boumerdès, Algeria. Commonly known as "IAP", the s ...

) and

Nils-Axel Mörner Niklas "Nils"-Axel Mörner af Morlanda (March 17, 1938 – October 16, 2020) was a Sweden, Swedish geologist and geophysics, geophysicist. He served as head of the paleogeophysics and geodynamics unit at Stockholm University until his retirement in ...

. Copernicus ceased its publication due to concerns over the publication's method of peer review, which it calls "nepotistic reviewing and malpractice" facilitating views contradicting the

scientific consensus on climate change There is a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific org ...

History

Copernicus agreed to publish the journal because the editors claimed that its aim would be "to publish articles about patterns recognized in the full spectrum of physical disciplines rather than to focus on climate-research-related topics." Concerns regarding the journal's

peer-review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

process were first raised in July 2013 by

Jeffrey Beall Jeffrey Beall is an American librarian and library scientist, best known for drawing attention to "predatory open access publishing", a term he coined, and for creating what is now widely known as Beall's list, a list of potentially predatory op ...

, an American librarian and critic of

predatory open access publishing Predatory publishing, also write-only publishing or deceptive publishing, is an exploitative academic publishing business model that involves charging publication fees to authors without checking articles for quality and legitimacy, and withou ...

. Beall wrote on his blog that Mörner did not appear to be a specialist in pattern recognition and that Ouadfeul's research had "only been cited a couple times." He also noted that two of the journal's first five articles were authored by Ouadfeul himself, and concluded that "This is not a good start for a journal, and the publisher ought to be concerned and take action." After a special issue of the journal was published in December 2013, which contained a paper in which the authors said they "doubt the continued, even accelerated, warming as claimed by the IPCC project," Copernicus managing director Martin Rasmussen expressed concern regarding this journal. He also said that "the editors selected the referees on a nepotistic basis, which we regard as malpractice in scientific publishing." On January 17, 2014, Copernicus Publications announced that they were terminating the journal, citing both the statement that questioned the IPCC's prediction of continued global warming and the "nepotistic" appointing of similarly-minded scientists to the journal's editorial board.

References

{{Reflist, 30em Academic journals established in 2013 Publications disestablished in 2014 Physics journals Open access journals Climate change denial English-language journals Copernicus Publications academic journals Defunct journals Pattern recognition