Predatory journals

Predatory
Journals
Prof. Dr. Keng Sheng Chew
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

Predatory Journals
• “Predatory” refers to entities that prey on
academicians for financial profit via article
processing charges (APC) for open access articles,
without meeting scholarly publishing standards
(Smith, BMJ 2015:350:h210)
• Traditional subscription model:
– authors to transfer copyright; primary revenue stream is
through fees charged to readers
• Open access model:
– Authors/funders to pay APC; authors to retain copyright
with Creative Commons license; rights to reuse

Predatory Journals
• Predatory publishing is a relatively recent
phenomenon that seems to be exploiting some key
features of the open access publishing model,
sustained by collecting APCs that are far less than
those found in legitimate open access journals
(Shamseer et al, 2017)

Predatory Journals
• A common practice among predatory publishers is
sending frequent e-mails to large numbers of
individuals soliciting manuscript submission,
praising potential authors as experts or opinion
leader, promising rapid publication for authors’ fees
that may be lower than those of legitimate author-
pays journals (Laine & Winker, 2017)
www.PresentationPro.com

Predatory Journals
• These invitations may seem attractive or an easy
solution to inexperienced or early career
researchers who need to publish in order to
advance their career, or to those desperate to get a
publication accepted after a number of rejections,
or to those simply not paying attention (Shamseer
et al, 2017)
• In some cases, authors aware that the journals do
not adhere to accepted standards but choose to
publish in them anyway (Laine & Winker, 2017).

Predatory Journals
• Such journals do not provide the peer review that is
the hallmark of traditional scholarly publishing.
• As such, they lack the scientific merit necessary to
gain future research funding and academic
advancement.
• Identifying such journals is important for all
stakeholders (authors, researchers, peer reviewers,
editors, funders, etc) because scientific work that is
not properly vetted should not contribute to the
scientific record.

• A longitudinal study of article volumes and
• publishing market characteristics estimated 8000
active predatory journals, with total articles
increasing from
• 53,000 in 2010 to 420,000 in 2014 (an estimated
three-quarters of authors were from Asia and
Africa)

Development Of Active Predatory Open
Access Journals From 2010 To 2014
Shen and Björk BMC Medicine (2015) 13:230

Development Of Predatory Open Access
Article Volumes From 2010 To 2014

Distribution Of Predatory Open Access
Articles In 2014 By Scientific Discipline

Development Of The Average Number Of
Articles Per Journal From 2010 To 2014

The distribution of Publishers (n = 656) by
Geographic Regions

Distribution Of Publishers By Country For
The Different Strata

Distribution Of The Corresponding Authors
By Geographic Regions

APCs in Predatory Journals

Scatter Plot Of Article Numbers Versus
Article Processing Fee
4 outliers:
Journal 1, 3 and 4 are
published by large
publishers (100+), and
in particular journal 4
(Remote Sensing).
Journal 2 is the
‘hijacked’ journal
Experimental & Clinical
Cardiology, which in
2014 still retained its
impact factor.
Until 2013, the journal was published by Pulsus Group, which sold the
journal to Cardiology Academic Press.

1800 CHF = RM 7400 = USD 1800

Beall’s List of Predatory Journals and
Publishers

Beall’s List
• From 2011 to January 2017, Jeffrey Beall, a
librarian at Auraria Library and associate professor
at the University of Colorado Denver, compiled
annual lists of potential, possible, or probably
predatory scholarly open access journals
• The effort involved in developing Beall’s list was
impressive and it was a reasonable starting point
for someone who wanted to investigate a journal’s
or publisher’s authenticity.

World Association of Medical Editors
(WAME)
Go to WAME website for Beall’s criteria

Beall’s List
• However, Beall did not list the specific criteria he
used to categorize a given journal as predatory
• Beall also mistakenly black-listed some legitimate
journals and publishers, particularly those from low
and middle income countries (Laine & Winker,
2017)
• From January 2017 onwards, Beall’s website was
defunct for unclear reasons

Think-Check-Submit Guide
• Do you or your colleagues know
the journal?
• Can you easily identify and
contact the publisher?
• Is the journal clear about the
type of peer review it uses?
• Are articles indexed in services
that you use?
• Is it clear what fees will be
charged?
• Do you recognise the editorial
board?
• Is the publisher a member of a
recognized industry initiative?

Examples of recognized industry initiatives
• Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
• Open Access Scholarly Publishers’ Association
(OASPA)
• INASP’s Journals Online platforms (for journals
published in Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Central
America and Mongolia) or on African Journals
Online (AJOL, for African journals)
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) list
• Journal Citation Report (JCR) list

Listing in DOAJ and JCR
• Many predatory journals are claiming they are
indexed by DOAJ and JCR Master List, but they
are not.
• Always check whether a journal is indexed by JCR
or/and DOAJ.
• If it is, that is usually a very good indicator that the
journal is not predatory.

13 Salient Features Of Potential Predatory
Journals
1. The wide scope of interest includes non-
biomedical subjects alongside biomedical topics
2. The website contains spelling and grammar errors
3. Images are distorted/fuzzy, intended to look like
something they are not, or which are unauthorized
4. The homepage targets authors with invitations
rather than targeting readers with contents
5. The Index Copernicus Value is promoted on the
website

Journals
6. Description of the manuscript handling process is
lacking
7. Manuscripts are requested to be submitted via
email
8. Rapid publication is promised
9. There is no retraction policy
10.Information on whether and how journal content
will be digitally preserved is absent

Journals
11.The Article processing/publication charge is very
low (e.g., < $150 USD)
12.Journals claiming to be open access either retain
copyright of published research or fail to mention
copyright
13.The contact email address is non-professional and
non-journal affiliated (e.g., @gmail.com or
@yahoo.com)

Index Copernicus

Index Copernicus
• Is an online database named after Nicolaus
Copernicus (who triggered the Copernican
Revolution) containing user-contributed
information, including scientist profiles established
in 1999 in Poland, and operated by Index
Copernicus International.
• It is controversial because it has a high proportion
of predatory journals included and its suspicious
evaluation methodology

Why Predatory Journals Continue To
Flourish?

“Predatory journals provide young researchers who may not
know better and academicians in search of quick publication
with a low barrier to publication. In too many settings,
promotions committees and other such bodies focus on the
number of publications rather than the quality of those
publications and the venues in which they appear. Thus,
predatory journals are likely to continue to prosper unless
such bodies and funders begin to routinely scrutinize the
quality as well as the quantity of their faculty’s publications,
not by excluding all online journals from consideration, but by
identifying acceptable journals according to quality criteria”
- Laine & Wincker, 2017

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