Predatory publishers and journals

Dr. Ranjitsinh Devkar PhD

Department of Zoology, The M.S. University of Baroda, Vadodara

rv.devkar-zoo@msubaroda.ac.in

Predatory Journal

• Predatory journals is a phrase (now in wider usage) coined by Jeffrey Beall, scholarly communications librarian at the University of Colorado at Denver, that refers to journals (and journal publishers) whose main purpose seems to be to exploit ("prey on") scholars and academics and their need to publish the results of their research.

Predatory Journals

What Is A Predatory Journal?

• A predatory journal is a publication that actively asks researchers for manuscripts.
• They have no peer review system and no true editorial board and are often found to publish mediocre or even worthless papers.
• They also ask for huge publication charges.

Why do academics publish in such journals?

Why do academics publish in such journals?

• In research environments, there is usually more value for quantity over quality.
• Hiring and promotion of academics is based largely on their number of publications. Predatory journals has helped many pseudo-researchers to prosper.

What is the harm caused by predatory journals?

• Predatory and low-quality journals corrupt the literature.
• Medical science has been particularly hit hard, with journals now devoted to unscientific medicine.

What is the harm caused by predatory journals?

How does one find out if a given journal is predatory or not?

• some people think any journal from an unknown publisher, or a journal that charges for publication, is necessarily predatory.
• That is not necessarily correct. The important thing is to dig deeper and find the quality of submitted manuscripts and its standards,”

Beall’s criteria for identification of predatory journals

Checklist to Identify Fake Journal

• Do you or your colleagues know the journal?
• Can you easily identify and contact the publisher?
• Is it clear what fees will be charged?
• Do you recognise the editorial board?
• Is the publisher a member of a recognised industry initiative (COPE,DOAJ,OASPA)?

Checklist to Identify Fake Journal

Characteristics of Predatory Journals

• Accepting articles quickly with little or no peer review or quality

control, including hoax and nonsensical papers.

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• Notifying academics of article fees only after papers are accepted.

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• Aggressively campaigning for academics to submit articles or serve on editorial boards.

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• Listing academics as members of editorial boards without their permission, and not allowing academics to resign from editorial boards.

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Characteristics of Predatory Journals

• Appointing fake academics to editorial boards.

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• Mimicking the name or web site style of more established

journals.

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• Making misleading claims about the publishing operation, such as a false location.

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• Using ISSNs improperly.

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• Citing fake or non-existent impact factors.

Predatory open access publishing

• The idea that they are "predatory" is based on the view that academics are tricked into publishing with them, though some authors may be aware that the journal is poor quality or even fraudulent.
• New scholars from developing countries are said to be especially at risk of being misled by predatory practices.

Growth And Structure

HRD ministry to remove all bogus journals

HRD ministry to remove all bogus journals

• While the UGC website lists 32,659 journals, university-source journals (5,699) are those which are recommended by various universities in the country, the paper notes.
• UGC has admitted that it received several complaints about the inclusion of low-quality journals soon after the release of its approved list of journals on June 2, 2017. The UGC has removed a few journals after an evaluation, the paper said.

HRD ministry to remove all bogus journals

Prof. Bhushan Patwardhan, Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU)

HRD ministry to remove all bogus journals

HRD ministry to remove all bogus journals

• The HRD ministry has adopted a very positive approach to dealing with the issue “and has decided to remove all the bogus journals from the UGC list shortly,” Patwardhan said.

HRD ministry to remove all bogus journals

Publish Or Perish

Case Study: Dozens of Scientific Journals Offered Her a Job. But She Didn't Exist

Guest Authorship

Gift Authors

Ghost Authors

• A ghost author is a person who should be listed as an author, but has been excluded.

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• These are usually commissioned (and often paid) by pharmaceutical companies to produce a paper from raw data. The authors listed on the article may have undertaken the research, created and perhaps analysed the data, but not written the article.

Ghost Authors

Terminology

Peer Review

• Scholarly peer review (also known as refereeing) is the process of subjecting an author's scholarly work, research, or ideas to the scrutiny of others who are experts in the same field, before a paper describing this work is published in a journal, conference proceedings or as a book.

Peer Review

Predatory Publishing

References

• Predatory open access publishing
• hxttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predatory_open_access_publishing
• Predatory Journals: What are they?
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4845443/
• Predatory Journals putting a question mark on quality research in India
• https://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/breaking-shackles/predatory-journals-

putting-a-question-mark-on-quality-research-in-india/

• Rise in 'predatory publishers' has sparked a warning for scientists and researchers
• http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-13/rise-in-predatory-publishers-sparks- warning-for-researchers/9640950
• Thirteen ways to spot a ‘predatory journal’ (and why we shouldn’t call

them that)

• https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/thirteen-ways-to-spot-a- predatory-journal-and-why-we-shouldnt-call-them-that

UGC Approved List of Journals

• UGC Approved List of Journals

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• https://www.ugc.ac.in/journallist/