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Predatory journals and the
impact on the scholarly
publishing community
UNISA Research & Innovation Week, March & August 2015
Mariëtte Enslin & Sibabalwe Oscar Masinyana
Taylor & Francis Africa
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2.
Defining Open Access
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Predatory Journals  March and August 2015  screen 3Taylor & Francis
Just to clarify…defining Open Access
(OA)
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 OA content still undergoes peer review
 Gold OA
 final article (Version of Record)
 Article made freely available online (often but not always
after payment of an article publishing charge (APC))
 Green OA
 archiving / deposit of an earlier version of an article in a
repository
Two elements:
1) making content freely available online to read
2) Making content reusable by third parties with little or no restrictions
A ‘profusion of confusion’
Myriad terms used to define Open Access, often contradictory!
We now talk about Gold and Green, but each have different shades….

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Predatory Journals  March and August 2015  screen 4Taylor & Francis
Defining OA cont.
Focus on clarity – our video defines Gold and Green OA in 90 seconds
See www.tandfonline.com/page/openaccess for more OA
information 4

5.
Defining Predatory Open
Access
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Predatory Journals  March and August 2015  screen 6Taylor & Francis
Why ‘Predatory’?
• "Predatory publishers use deception to appear
legitimate, entrapping researchers into submitting
their work and then charging them to publish it" –
Jeffrey Beall
• Internationally, increasing need to publish quota
of research for graduation/promotion
– Demand exceeding supply (legitimate journals)
– ‘entrepreneurs’ seeing excess demand, providing a
quick ‘solution’
• Able to exploit this situation via 2 main routes:
– Victims: Lack of author awareness, esp. dev. countries
– Co-conspirators: knowingly wanting immediate,
unethical results
• Aggressive or predatory in soliciting submissions 6

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Predatory Journals  March and August 2015  screen 7Taylor & Francis
Characteristics
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8.
Friend or foe?
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Predatory Journals  March and August 2015  screen 9Taylor & Francis
How do I differentiate them?
• Apply a rigorous academic process in selecting
your journal!
– Interrogate info provided: does it translate into action,
proof?
– Do you frequently read the journal? Have you cited it?
– Do leading scholars in the field publish in it, not just
from your own institution or network?
• What value do they add? What are you paying
for?
• What do reputable journals/publishers do beyond
mere publication?
– Statement of publishing ethics, COPE membership
– Marketing and discoverability for your paper
– Digital content preservation, (C)LOCKSS 9

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Predatory Journals  March and August 2015  screen 10Taylor & Francis
Trust, Authority and Quality
• Validation of integrity of scholarly research,
reinforced by: Journal brand; Editors and Board
expertise; Publisher brand; and Society brand
– Society and Publisher brands increasingly important
marks of trust, authority and peer review standards,
scientific authority, especially in Open/Public Access
world
– Journal brand still key signifier of authority, trust and
quality standards enshrined in rigorous peer review.
• New peer review processes being experimented
with
– pilots will provide evidence of popularity and
effectiveness of new models
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11.
Impact of Predatory OA
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Predatory Journals  March and August 2015  screen 12Taylor & Francis
Impact on you as researcher
• Longer term reputation and career prospects
sacrificed for immediate gains.
– No academic gain (no peer review, value added)
• Permanent stain on your academic reputation
• Even if your research is sound, it will likely be
disregarded by the academic community if
published in a predatory journal
• Waste of your research funding – could be
held accountable by your funding agency
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Predatory Journals  March and August 2015  screen 13Taylor & Francis
Impact on the broader community
• Every good paper published in a predatory
journal is one fewer keeping legitimate
journals afloat
• No academic contribution being made, which
no-one will then build upon & publish new
research on
• Similarly: unethical practices such as using
local journals for free manuscript
improvement & then retracting a paper to
submit internationally
• Authors are fuelling this damaging fire
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Predatory Journals  March and August 2015  screen 14Taylor & Francis
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Damages the scholarly journal
publishing value chain
Author
publishes ms
PREDATORY
JOURNAL
LEGITIMATE
JOURNAL
No opportunity for
improvement, vetting
PEER REVIEW & VALUE
Improved ms
after peer review,
copy-editing
Readership,
citations
New research building upon what was published

15.
Conclusion
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Predatory Journals  March and August 2015  screen 16Taylor & Francis
Main points to carry forward
• Don't blame the predatory journals - think
critically and engage in your research community.
• Uphold publishing ethics yourself, don't do
anything to compromise that as it will reflect on
your career
• Not black and white - there is no single identifier
or single list that can be used
• Always publish in journals that uphold
international academic standards and have a
statement of publishing ethics
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Predatory Journals  March and August 2015  screen 17Taylor & Francis
Sources and useful reading:
• How to target a journal that’s right for your research. Ravi
Murugesan, SciDevNet, 15 Dec 2014.
http://www.scidev.net/global/publishing/practical-
guide/target-journal-right-research-communicate-
publish.html
• Scholarly Open Access: Critical Analysis of Scholarly Open-
Access Publishing. Jeffrey Beall. http://scholarlyoa.com/
• Predatory Publishing. Jeffrey Beall, The Scientist, 1 Aug
2012. http://www.the-
scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/32426/title/Predator
y-Publishing/
• Predatory publishers: the bane of open access publishing.
Carina van Zyl, CSIR, 20 October 2014.
http://liasa.org.za/sites/default/files/notices/Carina%20van
%20Zyl%20-%20HSRC%20talk-Predatory%20publishers-
15Oct2014.pdf
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Thank you!
Mariette Enslin & Sibabalwe Oscar Masinyana
Taylor & Francis Africa
Email: Africa@tandf.co.za
Twitter: @TandF_Africa
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