Predatory publishing

Predatory Publishing

Predatory publishing means deceptive Publishing or to write only for the purpose of publishing.

It is a problematic academic publishing mechanism that involves charging huge publication fees to writers without properly checking articles for quality and legitimacy and without providing the other editorial and publishing services that standard and legitimate journals provide.

These journals are considered predatory journals because scholars are forced into publishing with them, although some authors may be aware that the journal is of poor quality or predatory.

New scholars from developing countries are said to be especially at risk of being misled by predatory publishers.

According to a study, 60% of research papers and articles published in predatory journals get no citations over the five year period following publication.

 

Characteristics of Predatory Publications

The most common complaints about predatory publishing are as follows-

1. Accepting articles very soon with little or no peer review and quality control.
2. Informing fees only after papers accepting the article for the journal.
3. A huge and too much campaigning for academics to submit the articles.
4. Mentioning the list of academics as members of editorial boards without getting their permission, and also, not allowing academics to resign from editorial boards.
5. Appointing false academics to their editorial board.
6. Copying the name of the journal and website style of more established and popular journals.
7. Making misleading claims about the publishing operation, such as a false location.
8. Using ISSN improperly
9. Citing or non-existent impact factors.
10. Boasting about being “indexed” by academic social networking sites such as Research Gate and standard identifiers such as ISSNs and DOIs as if they were prestigious or reputable bibliographic databases.

Eriksson and Helgesson’s 25 criteria

In 2016, scientists and researchers Stefan Eriksson and Gert Helgesson identified 25 features of predatory publishing.

The complete list is as below:

1. The publisher is not a member of any recognized professional organization committed to best publishing practices (like COPEor EASE)
2. The journal is not indexed in well established electronic databases such as MEDLINE or Web of Science.
3. The publisher claims to be a “leading publisher” even though it just got started the journal
4. The journal and the publisher are completely unfamiliar to you and all your colleagues
5. The papers of the journal are of poor research quality, and may not be academic at all
6. There are some basic errors in the titles and their abstracts, or frequent and repeated typographical or factual errors throughout the published papers.
7. The journal website is not professional in look and feel.
8. The journal website does not present an editorial board or gives insufficient data on names and affiliations.
9. The journal website does not display the journal’s editorial office location or uses an incorrect address
10. The publishing schedule is not clearly stated
11. The journal-title claims a national affiliation that does not match its location (such as “American Journal of …” while being located on another continent) or includes “International” in its title while having a single-country editorial board
12. The journal copies another journal title or the website
13. The journal provides an impact factor in spite of the fact that the journal is new which means that the impact cannot yet be calculated
14. The journal claims an unrealistically high impact based on false alternative impact factors such as 7 for a bioethics journal, which is far beyond the top notation
15. The journal website posts non-related or non-academic advertisements
16. The publisher of the journal has released an overwhelmingly large suite of new journals at one occasion or during a very short period of time
17. The editor in chief of the journal is editor in chief also for other journals
18. The journal includes articles outside its stated scope
19. The journal sends you an unsolicited invitation to submit an article for publication while making it deliberately clear that the editor has absolutely no idea about your field of expertise
20. Emails from the journal editor are written in poor language, include exaggerated flattering (everyone is a leading profile in the field), and make contradictory claims such as “You have to respond within 48 hours” while later on saying “You may submit your manuscript whenever you find convenient”
21. The journal charges a submission or handling fee, instead of a publication fee which means that you have to pay even if the paper is not accepted for publication
22. The types of submission/publication fees and what they amount to are not clearly stated on the journal’s website
23. The journal gives unrealistic promises regarding the speed of the peer review process
24. The journal does not describe copyright agreements clearly
25. The journal displays no strategies

List of Predatory Journals&List of Predatory Publishers 

 

 

You can find the complete list of predatory journals in the following link:  List of Predatory Journals

This is a list of possibly predatory journals. The kernel for this list was extracted from the archive of Beall’s list at web.archive.org. It will be updated as new information or suggested edits are submitted or found by the maintainers of this site.

 

Software Tools to Identify Predatory Publications developed by SPPU

Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU)

SPPU appointed a committee to look after the issues of the predatory journals.

 

Present problem

A recent analysis of who is publishing in such spurious Journals has indicated that most authors in predatory journals are from developing countries, especially India, Nigeria, and some African and Middle East countries.

In such a situation, the appointment of this committee by the Hon Vice Chancellor, Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) is commendable.

 

Guidelines and Recommendations to avoid Predatory Publishing

The problem of publication ethics and predatory journals is a very serious issue and is a global phenomenon.

However, there cannot be a centralized policy or system. Each country/region, every University/institute may have specific guidelines.

The committee feels that good research publications need good quality research work, which can happen with the inquiry, investigation, innovation, and hard work.

The desperation to publish poor quality work, plagiarized or false data in dubious journals will bring in the long run only disgrace to individuals, institutions, and nations, which must be avoided totally.

The committee is convinced that there is an immediate need to control publications in false journals, and periodicals, etc.

The committee feels that the present policy of the University to strengthen the research culture by providing support from its own resources is good, however more stringent methods are needed to evaluate the impact and outcome of the research.

The committee, therefore, recommends the following as a policy to encourage responsible research and ethical publishing:

 

• Generally, those journals which are regularly published at least for consecutive five years, do not guarantee publication in a short time at cost consideration, publish true and correct information on websites, have reputed academicians on editorial boards, and are members of reputed bodies like COPE can be considered as good journals and research publications can be considered for academic purposes.

Papers published in private in-house journals, proceedings of workshops, seminars, refresher/orientation courses should not be considered as research publications.

• In accordance with the UGC Regulations 2010, University should develop a comprehensive department-wise list of quality Journals and reputed publishers in each subject.

This should be used as a reference when dealing with research guides recognition, Ph.D. / M.Phil submissions, selection, confirmation, increments, career advancement, as well as for considering scores under categories III A and B of the API.

• To qualify individual publications in peer-reviewed / reputed/refereed journals mere ISSN number is not sufficient.

The publisher/journal should be indexed in globally accepted databases, should preferably be members of reputed bodies like COPE, and must follow publication ethics in a transparent manner where all true, correct, and vital information is available on the journal website.

• A good journal that complies with ethics in publishing, which is indexed in reputed agencies like Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, Pubmed, SSRN, etc should be considered as reputed journals.

Various types of tools and metrics developed by reputed agencies like Thomson Reuters (Science Citation Index, Impact Factor), Scopus, Scimago (h index, SJR) are reliable indicators.

• The record of citations to a particular publication in other reputed journals is also a very useful parameter to judge the quality of a research paper. In open access, Google Scholar offers citation records and h5-index, which can also be considered in the primary evaluation.

However, it should be kept in mind that many predatory journals have managed to enter Google Scholar.

Therefore, it is always better not to rely on any single metrics agency but it is best to ensure that the Journals are indexed in at least three of the reputed indexing/metrics agencies and databases.

• Research publications in Marathi, Hindi, and other languages constitute an important aspect especially for the Faculties of Arts, Fine Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.

Due recognition to Marathi and other language journals should be given. The modalities to identify reputed research journals in Marathi and other languages should be decided by a committee of senior social science professors together with external national experts duly approved by the Vice-Chancellor.

• The faculty-wise lists should be developed by independent committees to be appointed by the Vice-Chancellor consisting of senior professors from the university and external experts including national research professors, Directors of National Institutes, Fellows of National Academies, and such other distinguished academicians.

Journals published by National Academies, National Institutions, and National Societies should be recognized. These lists should be updated every year and should be published in annual reports and displayed prominently on the University website.

• Classification of Journals like national or international and ranking merely based on impact factors is not relevant today especially because a large number of predatory journals with names starting with ‘international’ ‘global’, ‘world’ etc are in plenty as also several counterfeit impact factor agencies are in existence.

Because many counterfeits and spurious agencies have cropped up giving fake h index and impact factors, utmost care needs to be taken before including any journal in the official list of the University.

• Many fake indexing agencies, societies; academies have created a false identity to sound similar to reputed agencies.

Beall’s list provides primary guidance and information on predatory publishers, predatory standalone journals, misleading metrics companies, and hijacked journals http://scholarlyoa.com/2015/01/02/bealls-list-of-predatory-publishers-2015/.

• Very careful due diligence should be done while developing a comprehensive faculty-wise list of approved journals.
• Research publication ethics and guidelines should be widely circulated and undertaking should be obtained from Ph.D. guides and the research students, stating that he/she has understood the guidelines and violating them can lead to appropriate actions by the University.
• As a good publication practice, manuscripts proposed to be published as research articles, thesis, a dissertation may preferably go through screening by individual Departmental Research Committee consisting of internal and external experts duly approved by the Vice-Chancellor.

All such research manuscripts should be scanned through reputed anti-plagiarism software like Turnitin, or to which your University has subscribed.

• University should create more awareness about predatory publishers and the importance of publication ethics so that faculty and students are encouraged to do high-quality rigorous research and not surrender to desperation to publish poor quality work by taking shortcuts and easy ways.
• The quality of any publication can be best judged after considering the amount of work, rigor, methodology, novelty, etc, which can be evaluated by external experts in the field in an anonymous manner.

As a long term policy, the University should strengthen its research culture and bring a stringent external peer review system to critically evaluate its research output.

• These guidelines and comprehensive department wise lists of Journals in each subject should be published in the University Annual Report and prominently displayed on the University website for creating awareness and dissemination of information.