RSTF Joint Guide: Predatory Publishing

Predatory publishing was first highlighted by Jeffrey Beall, a librarian, in 2008. He also put forward a tentative definition for this new concept in 2010:
 

“We use the term “predatory” cautiously, primarily in an attempt to initially categorize a certain class of Open-Access scholarly publishers with like characteristics. These publishers are predatory because their mission is not to promote, preserve, and make available scholarship; instead, their mission is to exploit the author-pays, Open-Access model for their own profit. They work by spamming scholarly e-mail lists, with calls for papers and invitations to serve on nominal editorial boards.. . . Also, these publishers typically provide little or no peer-review. In fact, in most cases, their peer review process is a façade. None of these publishers mentions digital preservation. Indeed, any of these publishers could disappear at a moment’s notice, resulting in the loss of its content.”
 

The most recent definition of predatory journals and publishers was published in Nature. This definition was agreed upon at the Predatory Summit in Ottawa, Canada, in April 2019. 
 

“Predatory journals and publishers are entities that prioritize self-interest at the expense of scholarship and are characterized by false or misleading information, deviation from best editorial and publication practices, a lack of transparency, and/or the use of aggressive and indiscriminate solicitation practices.”
 

At the same Summit, participants also discussed four alternative terms, “dark”, “deceptive”, “illegitimate” and “acting in bad faith”. The recommendation was to keep the term “predatory” while noting its limitation.

CREDIT: Illustration by David Parkins, courtesy of Nature

Sources:

Cukier, S., Lalu, M., Bryson, G. L., Cobey, K. D., Grudniewicz, A., & Moher, D. (2020). Defining predatory journals and responding to the threat they pose: A modified Delphi consensus process. BMJ Open, 10(2), e035561. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-035561 

Grudniewicz, A., Moher, D., Cobey, K. D., Bryson, G. L., Cukier, S., Allen, K., ... & Lalu, M. M. (2019). Predatory journals: No definition, no defence. Nature, 576, 210-212.  https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03759-y

The results of a study to examine the reasons why authors publish in predatory journals emerged in four themes: 

• Social identity threat
  • Fear of being prejudiced against
• Unawareness
  • Misled into submitting papers
• High pressure
  • Publish or “Perish”
• Lack of research proficiency
  • Unfamiliar with the research/publishing practices

Source:
Kurt, S. (2018). Why do authors publish in predatory journals?.Learned Publishing, 31(2), 141-147. https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1150 

Here are some of the risks if you publish with a predatory publisher or present in a predatory conference:

• Your work may receive little or no peer-review
  • Lack of academic publishing standards may compromise the quality of your work.  
• Your work may never be published
  • You may not be able to submit your work to another publisher if you have signed away the copyright.
• Your work may be difficult to find
  • Works published by predatory publishers are not usually indexed in academic databases, resulting in lower readership and citation rate.
• Your work may disappear after some time
  • Works may not be retrievable if the predatory publishers go out of business and their websites cease to exist  
• Loss of reputation  
  • Involvement in predatory journals/conferences could harm both your institution’s and your reputation as a researcher.

• Always exercise scepticism when you receive unsolicited invitations to publish in unfamiliar journals. Ask around if your colleagues heard of this publisher/journal before?
   
• Check the publisher/journal’s website thoroughly and watch out for the common signs of predatory journal/publisher. A predatory journal/publisher may display one or more of below characteristics:
  • A journal title which can be easily confused with another journal or that might mislead potential authors and readers about the journal’s origin, scope or association with other journals;
  • Use of spam emails or flattering emails to solicit articles or direct email request to submit an article; 
  • Very wide scope; 
  • False claims of being indexed in major directories or database, e.g.  PubMed or DOAJ;
  • Very fast turn-around time from submission to publication;
  • Poor or non-existent editing of articles (many spelling mistakes or very poor grammar);
  • Hidden information on article processing charges (APCs); 
  • No or fake editorial board is listed;
  • Lack of information on the policies of the journal, such as peer review, licensing and copyright;
  • Author rights is not clearly explained;
  • The publisher/journal’s websites have a poor design or layout;
  • Misleading contact information;
  • Unclear ownership of the journal;
  • False information about location/affiliations/editorial board members;
  • Missing standards information, e.g. DOI, ISSNs;
  • Fake impact factor;
  • Unclear instructions for authors;
  • No past issues can be found or viewed; 
  • A new business launching many journals at a time, etc. 
     
• Verify the editorial board information to see if there are any fake scholars or scholars listed without their permission. On the one hand, you can check the institution pages or professional profiles of named editorial board members. If there is no mention of the journal, then you will need to proceed with caution. On the other hand, you may want to list your editorial work and affiliations on your own institution page and professional profiles (e.g. ORCID, Publons, LinkedIn, ResearchGate, etc.), so that others who are assessing the credibility of a particular journal can check such information easily. 
   
• Look at previously published papers to assess the journal’s quality. Take a look at past issues of the journal gives you a general idea whether the papers are really published to the journals’ advertised speciality areas and how the quality of published papers is. It could be a strong sign that the journal is not legitimate if the past issues cannot be located. 
   
• Check if the publisher/journal is a member of a reputable industry initiative. The following are examples of organisations that seek to maintain standards in the publishing industry: 
  • Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers
  • Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
  • International Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers (STM)
  • International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)
  • Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA)
     
• Research the peer review process and publication timeline. Peer review is significant to uphold the quality of scientific papers and journals. Readers can assume the information published in peer-reviewed journals is credible as the information has been evaluated by editors and independent experts in the same research field. If the journal advertises exceptional fast turn-around timeline from submission to publication, investigate them further.
   
• Check if you can contact the publisher directly and easily. Usually predatory publishers claim to be based in major cities, but they publish somewhere else.
   
• Conduct online searches regularly and watch out for the publishers/journals that list your name on their websites but you are not affiliated with.  If you find yourself are falsely listed on a publisher/journal's website, request them to remove your name as soon as possible. 
   
• Media Resources:
  • Infographic: Predatory Journals Algorithm (Figure 1)
  • Infographic: Phony Vs Legit 
  • Video: Research in 3 Minutes: Predatory Publishers