Predatory journals as threats to the academic publishing: a review

Academic publishing has been increasing greatly with the spread of open access journals and the shift to online publishing. However, authors must be aware of predatory journals and publishers while submitting their academic works for publication. Publishing in predatory journals is just a waste of efforts, money, and time as it does not add any scientific merits to the authors. The practice of predatory publishing can also damage the reputation of institutions and funding agencies. Therefore, there is an urgent need for awareness among researchers regarding predatory publishing. Local, national and international regulatory bodies should take stern actions against predatory publications while granting research funds and evaluating the researchers’ performance for job promotion and academic degrees

Performance evaluation of maize in Jumla district of Nepal: from yielding perspective

The performance evaluation of maize genotypes  at a specific growing region is a key to crop improvement. The objectives of this study were to evaluate grain yield of maize genotypes at Bijayanagar (Mahatgaun VDC) and Tallo Lorpa (Dillichaur VDC), Jumla District of Nepal during spring seasons of 2012 and 2013. The maize genotypes were significant (P< 0.05) for grain yield, days to tasseling and silking and  disease scoring where as anthesis-silking interval, plant height and ear height were non significant. The pooled analysis of the results showed that the highest grain yield was produced by Ganesh-1 (4830 kg/ha) followed by KKT-POP (4408 kg/ha), KKT-14 (3952 kg/ha) and MGU-08 (3913 kg/ha, respectively. From this study, Ganesh-1, KKT-POP, KKT-14 and MGU-08 could be preferable choice for cultivation in Jumla district of Nepal

Asian elephants and their status in Nepal: a review

Wild Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) are one of the most endangered wildlife species in Nepal. Currently, there are approximately 200 to 250 wild elephants counted in Nepal. Of  them, 15-20 are in Jhapa district, 17 are in KoshiTappu Wildlife Reserve, eight in Sindhuli, and 45-50 in Parsa National Park andChitwan National Park. More  than 100 elephants are in Bardiya National Parks and adjoining municipalities, and 25-30 are in Suklaphanta National Park and adjoining municipalities.Elephant conservation is challenged by habitat fragmentation, obstruction of migratory routes and human-elephant conflict. The governments of Nepal, law enforcement, NGOs, and local communities have made various initiatives to conserve elephants. In the paper, we have outlined the current status of the elephant population, and its conservative efforts. This study may be a useful tool for the scientific communities and ecologists to protect elephants from extinction

Cluster Analysis of Maize Inbred Lines

The determination of diversity among inbred lines is important for heterosis breeding. Sixty maize inbred lines were evaluated for their eight agro morphological traits during winter season of 2011 to analyze their genetic diversity. Clustering was done by average linkage method. The inbred lines were grouped into six clusters. Inbred lines grouped into Clusters II had taller plants with maximum number of leaves. The cluster III was characterized with shorter plants with minimum number of leaves. The inbred lines categorized into cluster V had early flowering whereas the group into cluster VI had late flowering time. The inbred lines grouped into the cluster III were characterized by higher value of anthesis silking interval (ASI) and those of cluster VI had lower value of ASI. These results showed that the inbred lines having widely divergent clusters can be utilized in hybrid breeding programme

Performance of oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) grown on different fingermillet husk substrates

Substrate type is one of the major factors affecting the growth and yield of oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus). Five substrates; Finger millet husk, Fingermillet husk + Molasses, Fingermillet husk + Rice bran, Fingermillet husk + Wheat bran, Fingermillet husk +Mustard oilseed cake, were evaluated for growth and productivity of oyster mushroom. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with each treatment replicated seven times. Additives were added on finger millet husk @5% of its dry weight. Standard cultivation practice was followed with steam sterilization and spawning was done in poly bags containing 2.5 kg of wet substrate. Data were collected on time taken for full spawn run, fresh mushroom yield, biological efficiency and cropping duration upto three flushes. Molasses took the least duration (16.86 days) for full spawn run which was found to be statistically at par with wheat bran(17.13 days) and rice bran(17.75 days) whereas control treatment took the longest duration (21.62 days). Rice bran produced the highest fresh mushroom yield (793.04g/bag) with highest biological efficiency (137.92%), which was statistically at par with control, molasses and wheat bran. Similarly, rice bran had least cropping duration (66.62 days) followed by control (67.88 days), molasses (69.14 days), wheat bran (70.12 days) and mustard oilseed cake (73.86 days). The lowest fresh yield (521.84 g/bag) with lowest biological efficiency (90.75%) and the longest cropping duration (73.86 days) was observed on mustard oilseed cake supplementation. This study revealed that molasses, rice bran and wheat bran accelerated spawn run whereas mustard oilseed cake supplementation produced lowest fresh mushroom yield with least biological efficiency and highest cropping duration showing that it was ineffective for increasing yield and productivity of oyster mushroom

Grain Yield Stability of Quality Protein Maize Genotypes across Diverse Environments of Terai and Mid Hills in Nepal

Maize is produced in diverse environmental conditions in Nepal. National Maize Research Program regularly tests maize genotypes for their grain yield stability in highly diverse environments. The objective of this paper is to estimate grain yield stability of quality protein maize genotypes across different environments. Two quality protein maize genotypes namely Poshilo Makai-1 and S99TLYQ-HG-B along with Farmer’s variety were tested at nine different locations of Nepal in four consecutive years before 2013 under farmer’s fields. Alpha-lattice design with two replications was used. The results of these studies revealed that S99TLYQ-HG-B was more stable followed by Poshilo Makai-1 as compare to Farmer’s variety. The overall higher mean grain yield and regression coefficient (b) near to unity showed that S99TLYQ-HG-B is the most adaptive genotype across the tested environments. However, more than unity regression coefficient (b) indicates that Poshilo Makai-1 could be the recommended variety for better environments under farmers’ management

Effect of different substrate sterilization methods on performance of oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus)

Saabunud / Received 21.01.2021 ; Aktsepteeritud / Accepted 16.04.2021 ; Avaldatud veebis / Published online 16.04.2021 ; Vastutav autor / Corresponding author: Sanju Shrestha [email protected] sterilization of substrates is an indispensable step in oyster mushroom cultivation. Oyster mushroom growers in Nepal usually follow three different substrate sterilization methods; however, their comparative effectiveness is vastly unexplored. Thus, these experiments were carried out at the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science (IAAS), Lamjung Campus, Lamjung, Nepal from January to March, in the years 2017 and 2019. The objective of these experiments was to identify the most appropriate method of sterilization. Three different types of sterilization methods viz chemical sterilization (formaldehyde + carbendazim), steam sterilization, and hot-water sterilization were evaluated for the growth parameters and productivity of oyster mushroom cultivated on rice straw. The experiments were laid out on Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with ten replications. The results showed that the spawning rate was 3.2% of the wet substrate. Data were collected until the third flush. A significantly longer duration to colonize the substrate (29.7 days) was observed under chemical sterilization. The oyster mushroom performed best under steam sterilization as it took the shortest time for pinhead formation (34.30 days), fruiting body formation (43.60 days), cropping duration (89.30 days), and produced the highest mushroom yield (1401.9 g per 4 kg bag), and consequently, the highest biological efficiency (101.38%). Average pileus diameter and stipe length were statistically indifferent among the treatments suggesting the significant effect of sterilization methods on the yield of oyster mushroom but not on its morphological attributes

List of predatory journals and publishers

The predatory publications are a big challenge, especially in developing countries including Nepal. Predatory publishing not only harms or degrades academic reputations but also wastes time, money, resources, and efforts (Shrestha et al., 2020). Predatory publications pose a danger that could undermine the quality, integrity, and reliability of published scientific research works. Predatory publications also harm the reputation of the universities and research organizations which are connected with these publications. Universities and research organizations should educate researchers, especially juniors, about the existence of predatory journals, the dangers they pose, and ways to avoid them (Shrestha, 2020). The problem of potential open access predatory or fake publications is an important issue that must be actively discussed at national, regional and world level within academic communities (Shrestha et al., 2018b). Predatory publications must be avoided or excluded while evaluating CV or biodata of researchers for job promotion and releasing the research grants. The authors should be careful about predatory or fake journals/publishers for communicating their scientific works (Shrestha et al., 2018a). The researchers should be aware of the quality of journals while publishing their research results (Shrestha et al., 2020). There is an international initiative called “Think. Check. Submit.” (http://thinkchecksubmit.org) that helps the researchers to identify trusted journals for publication. It contains a simple checklist researchers can use to assess the credentials of a journal or publisher. Authors should look at the journal website some of the articles published in the journals to assess their quality; this quick review may be all that is needed to identify predatory journals (Forero et al., 2018).The below list of predatory journals and publishers is copied from https://predatoryjournals.com/ (Anonymous, 2020a) and https://beallslist.net/ (Anonymous, 2020b). The purpose of this article is to create awareness about the predatory publications

Vanity publishers: How to identify and avoid them

Vanity publishers are companies that charge authors to publish their theses/books, either directly or indirectly. They publish theses/books without going through peer review, editing and proofreading procedures. They don't care about the quality of the theses/books they publish. They leave the authors to do all of the formatting and spell-checking on their own. Vanity publishers are predatory publishers. They will actively recruit authors and publicize their publishing offerings. They frequently target early-career scholars who are looking for opportunities to publish their works or may offer to publish their thesis. They contact master's, bachelor's, and doctorate program graduates and offer to publish their theses for free. These publishers offer publication of an author’s work in a book form for free. Vanity publishers do not offer professional marketing services. They use print-on-demand to distribute these/books at premium costs. They advise the author to self-publish through a partner press instead. They do not distribute royalty to authors as they promised. A vanity publisher may not be a member of a recognized association/group as given below; • Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) • STM Association • Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) • Book Industry Study Group • Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association • Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) • Publishers Association Vanity publishing harms or degrades academic reputations and makes wastage of time, money, resources, and efforts. Vanity publications are worthless. The author loses copyright to their works. The published theses/books are of poor quality which do not meet the requirement for an academic or employment career. Universities and research organizations should educate scholars and researchers, especially juniors, about the existence of vanity publishers. Vanity publications must be avoided while evaluating CV or bio-data of researchers for job promotion and releasing the research grants. The students, academics, and researchers should be careful to avoid vanity publications and their citations