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Publish or perish: A sign of caution for authors to avoid predatory journals

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Aamir Raoof Memon at Victoria University Melbourne
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Vol. 67, No. 5, May 2017
822
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Publish or perish: A sign of caution for authors to avoid predatory journals
Aamir Raoof Memon
Madam, the rapid rise in the number of predatory
journals and invitations to submit are more than a
nuisance to the researchers.1,2 And, this problem can be
further escalated by the sudden disappearance of Beall's
blog resulting in a major damage to the scientific
publishing, and putting young and naive researchers
particularly from the developing countries at risk.3I was
recently requested to offer help on an issue concerning
predatory journals. Unfortunately, senior and
experienced researchers from a developing country were
the victims in this case. They had submitted their paper
to the International Research Journal of Applied and
Basic Sciences (IRJABS) (http://www.irjabs.com/en/) in
August 2015, but due to no response from the journal's
editorial office even after several trials of
correspondence, the paper was withdrawn by the
authors on September 22, 2015. However, as usual, the
authors did not receive any response from the journal
and presumably submitted the manuscript to a
legitimate outlet for publication in May, 2016, which after
undergoing revisions, was published in February, 2017.
Recently, it came to the authors' knowledge that the
paper they had withdrawn from the IRJABS was
published in the first issue of Scinzer Journal of Medical
(http://www.scinzer.com/J/Scinzer_Journal
_of_Medical/Default) of 2015. I was able to provide a
valuable input to the authors when approached by them.
It is important to mention that the IRJABS and the Scinzer
Journal of Medical are published by the Science Explorer
Publications and the Scinzer Scientific Publications
respectively, both of which are predatory publishers.4The
authors sent an email to the Scinzer Journal of Medical
asking them to remove their paper with a threat of taking
legal action, and the paper was ultimately taken down
from the website of Scinzer Journal of Medical. This was a
sensible move by the authors as the Committee on
Publication Ethics (COPE) has suggested the same to be
done.5The authors were fortunate enough to save their
reputation and of course, their paper from facing a
retraction from the legitimate journal but there are
certainly, some questions raised from this case. Firstly,
how a paper that was submitted to a journal got
published in another journal having a different publisher?
It is more likely that the owner or party behind the two
publishers may be the same and trying this novel
deceptive technique. Secondly, what could have been
done to avoid this menace to happen? I understand that
the authors were keen to publish, wrong selection of a
journal without knowing its authenticity can result in
losing the article, and it can result in waste of time and a
futile outcome than that of publishing in a legitimate
journal. It can also put a question mark on the reputation
of the authors. A sensible and sound journal selection
prior to submission of the work would in most of the
cases, if not all, be contributive in avoiding this mishap.
This case is a learning experience particularly for the early-
career and developing country researchers. I suggest the
authors from the developing world that they should
confirm, prior to the submission of their work, the
legitimacy of the journal and its publisher. They should
seek help from their senior colleagues and those with
expertise in journal selection.3Moreover, to obtain a
blacklist of dubious journals and publishers, the archived
copies of Beall' lists may be useful.4Conversely, the
whitelists can be obtained from PubMed/MEDLINE
(https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/serfile_addedinfo.html or
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/journals/ or
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals),
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
(https://doaj.org/search), Master Journal List of Clarivate
Analytics (http://ip-science.thomsonreuters.com/mjl/), and
Publons (https://publons.com/journal/?order_by=reviews).
Additionally, Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association
(OASPA) (http://oaspa.org/membership/members/),
Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
(http://publicationethics.org/members/journals/?f[0]=bun
dle%3Ajournal), International Committee of Medical
Journal Editors (ICMJE) (http://www.icmje.org/journals-
following-the-icmje-recommendations/), and International
Association of STM Publishers (http://www.stm-
assoc.org/membership/our-members/) may also be useful
in providing the list of legitimate journals or publishers. To
find a journal with an impact factor, Journal Citation
Reports (JCR) may be useful and it can be easily obtained
by typing "Journal Citation Reports [the required year] PDF"
in Google. Likewise, a quick guide for journal selection
Institute of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Sciences, Peoples University of
Medical & Health Sciences for Women, Nawabshah, Sindh, Pakistan.
Correspondence: Email: dpt.aamir@gmail.com
process is the Think. Check. Submit. Campaign
(http://www.thinkchecksubmit.org/). To conclude, a
sensible decision in journal selection may lead to
publication of the paper in a legitimate and more
reliable outlet whereas a rushed and blunt move may
cause authors getting victimized by the fraudulent
journals and publishers; so, it is advisable that they
ought to be careful while submitting their work for
publication and should learn from the recent experience
presented in this paper.
Conflict of Interest or Disclosure: Nil.
Funding: Nil.
References
1. Persson PB. Soon more journals than authors? Acta Physiol (Oxf).
2016; 216: 257.
2. Clemons M, de Costa E Silva M, Joy AA, Cobey KD, Mazzarello S,
Stober C, et al. Predatory Invitations from Journals: More Than Just
a Nuisance?. Oncologist. 2017; 22: 236-40.
3. Memon AR. Beall's List Has Vanished: What Next? J Orthop Sports
Phys Ther. 2017; 47: 222-3.
4. Scholarly Open Access. Potential, possible, or probable predatory
scholarly open-access publishers (archived copies). [Online] 2017
[Cited 2017 March 4]. Available from URL: https://web.archive.org/
web/20170112125427/https://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/.
5. Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Withdrawal of accepted
manuscript from predatory journal. [Online] 2016 [Cited 2017
March 6]. Available from URL: http://publicationethics.org/case/
withdrawal-accepted-manuscript-predatory-journal.
J Pak Med Assoc
823 A. R. Memon
... However, some senior researchers may be scammed by such journals [12]. Therefore, it is always recommended to get proper counseling from senior and expert researchers for selecting a legitimate journal [13]. Unfortunately, some researchers may deliberately submit their manuscripts to these journals for variable reasons including a fast academic promotion [2,14]. ...
... It seems there are no fully established protocols to deal with these issues. However, some attempts to answer some of these questions took place by some authors [13,20,37,38]. ...
... A withdrawal letter can be sent to the editor of the predatory journal asking to withdraw the article from their journal [18]. If a sufficient time has passed without you getting a feedback, The included journals are likely to be legitimate or you still find your article on the website of the journal, the next step is to send another email asking for a withdrawal within a specific period, with a statement that a legal action will be taken (if possible) if they do not comply [13,39]. ...
Predatory Publishers/Journals in Medical Sciences: How to Avoid, Stop, and What to Do after Being Scammed by Them?
Article
Full-text available
  • Sep 2020
PurposeThe phenomenon of predatory publishers and journals is one of the recent issues to affect the scientific field. It has negative impacts upon scientific research and harmful consequences, including the spread of pseudo-medical sciences. This article discusses general outlines regarding the concept of predatory journals to clarify this issue for junior researchers and academic workers.MethodsA brief description of the mechanism of publication within legitimate journals was highlighted. Moreover, the negative impact of this behavior was clarified along with several suggestions that may help authors to avoid predatory journals. Finally, post-predatory publication procedures were discussed, followed by practical steps to eliminate or minimize this phenomenon.Conclusion The practice of publishing in the predatory journals needs to be addressed; raising this topic in all academic and research institutions may help minimize the impacts. Moreover, this topic must be part of the curriculum for both undergraduate and graduate courses to draw students’ attention to this issue. Furthermore, actions should be taken against those who deliberately publish their work in such journals.
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... The general assumption is that the most common victims of such journals are young, naive, early career researchers, especially from developing countries, but this may not always be the case [3][4][5]. Recent evidences suggest that predatory publishing is a global phenomenon affecting authors from both developing and developed countries, and even experienced authors get duped [5,6]. How can we deal with these publishers and how can authors avoid getting duped by them? ...
... The current point system and the 'publish to perish' mantra have been the major reason for which predatory journals have flourished and succeeded in deceiving researchers [6]. The situation is exacerbated by the lack of training about and control over this issue in higher education institutions at any level [7]. ...
... Journal editors, whether from developing or developed countries, should therefore avoid any practices that could raise doubts about their legitimacy or place them on a list of journals using predatory practices [13]. Recent evidences suggest that pressure to 'publish or perish, ' a lack of awareness and research proficiency, and the belief that reputable Western journals are prejudiced against authors from the developing world are among the most common reasons for publishing in predatory journals [6,14]. Therefore, more effort is needed by reputable journals, organizations, and higher education institutions to make researchers aware of the problem of predatory journals [14]. ...
How to respond to and what to do for papers published in predatory journals?
Article
Full-text available
  • Aug 2018
Predatory publishing, a destructive phenomenon that has been highlighted and discussed since 2011, is the consequence of the gold (author-pays) open access publishing model [1]. Predatory journals are money-making stations characterized by charging publication fees and an absence of ‘true’ peer review [2]. These journals and publishers have grown to a very large number in recent years [2,3]. The general assumption is that the most common victims of such journals are young, naive, early career researchers, especially from developing countries, but this may not always be the case [3-5]. Recent evidences suggest that predatory publishing is a global phenomenon affecting authors from both developing and developed countries, and even experienced authors get duped [5,6]. How can we deal with these publishers and how can authors avoid getting duped by them? This essay presents a few incidents to build on for answering these questions.
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... How do the uninitiated distinguish such genuine but non-indexed journals from the aforementioned "predatory" journals? Some of these criteria have been previously discussed under the recent "Think Check Submit" initiative and previous publications [6,[20][21][22][23]. As a rule of thumb, the authors suggest that journals which are published by national or international societies, or endorsed by such societies, are more likely to be genuine and conforming to the ethics of academic publishing, irrespective of whether they are listed with the reputed indexing agencies or not. ...
... We feel that a journal that has been present for a significant period of time (10 years or more) and continues to publish new articles currently is likely to be genuine. Based on our experience, in addition to prior published literature [6,[20][21][22][23], we have put forth some criteria in Tables 1 and 2, which may help authors to identify whether a journal is legitimate and aid in the selection of an appropriate journal to showcase their work. ...
... Hence, it stands to reason that a journal started or managed with a 'predatory' intent would prefer to be online only as opposed to being in print (either exclusively or both). From our experience and from prior published literature [6,[20][21][22][23]], a few criteria (Table 1) could be used by indexing agencies/ whitelists to accurately identify and delist or refuse applications from such "predatory" journals. Journals which have been in existence for only a few years need to be scrutinized more carefully, as also those journals which do not regularly publish papers or which show decreasing number of publications with passage of time. ...
Publishing in black and white: the relevance of listing of scientific journals
Article
Full-text available
  • Nov 2017
  • RHEUMATOL INT
Scientific publishing, including in the field of Rheumatology, is evolving rapidly. Predatory journals are one of the major threats to contemporary publishing, especially to eager and naïve authors. In this narrative review, we discuss mechanisms that authors can employ to white list genuine scientific journals and blacklist “predatory” ones. Inclusion of a journal in reputed indices such as Medline (but not just Pubmed), Web of Science, Scopus or Embase raises the likelihood that the journal is genuine, more so if it is included in the current Journal Citation Reports. Other commercially available whitelists also exist, so also whitelists published by regulatory authorities in some countries. A commercially available blacklist has emerged since the very useful Beall’s blacklist became defunct. In the absence of access to a whitelist or blacklist, certain characteristics such as repeated email solicitations for articles with an extremely narrow deadline from unknown sources, lack of inclusion in reputed indices, journals not published or endorsed by national or international society and scarcity of currently published articles should render authors suspicious of the genuine nature of a journal. National societies should work together to generate subject-specific (including Rheumatology specific) whitelists that can be available free of cost to authors from all over the world.
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... The current point system for recruitment and promotion, and the pressure to publish or perish, helps predatory journals flourish and deceive researchers. 6,7 There are a wide variety of reasons as to why authors choose to publish in predatory journals. These may include quick and easy publication without the hassle of a formal and rigorous peer review leading to promotion and excellence in career, obtaining grants and funding, and to satisfy the ego for an international publication in presumably an "International Journal". ...
... 7 As a result, not only early-career and inexperienced researchers get duped by the so-called predatory journals, but also the experienced scholars are also victimized. 6 However, some authors argue that not all researchers are actually the 'victims' of the predatory journals because some experienced and published researchers deliberately and repeatedly publish in such journals, creating a symbiotic relationship. 8 These authors cheat the fair system, and in fact, get jobs and promotions through wrong means. ...
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... Many predatory journals especially those published by the same publisher often have similar webpage design and content which is usually copy pasted and has many grammatical mistakes. 17,28,29 The articles published in such journals often have poor proof-reading and many technical errors. 12. ...
... 30,31 However, even some experienced researchers have also been tricked into publishing in predatory journals. 28 Since the predatory journals are considered to produce "junk" science, authors publishing in such journals may not usually get any official credit for their work. 32,33 There is a debate on what should these authors do? ...
View
... He showed that predatory journals target a wide range of researchers from both developed and developing countries. Furthermore, this has been argued in other studies as well that researchers all over the world, regardless of their country, field, and experience, are duped by predatory journals [23,24]. ...
Jourchain: using blockchain to avoid questionable journals
Article
  • Jul 2021
Scholarly publishing currently is faced by an upsurge in low-quality, questionable “predatory/hijacked” journals published by those whose only goal is profit. Although there are discussions in the literature warning about them, most provide only a few suggestions on how to avoid these journals. Most solutions are not generalizable or have other weaknesses. Here, we use a novel information technology, i.e., blockchains, to expose and prevent the problems produced by questionable journals. Thus, this work presented here sheds light on the advantages of blockchain for producing safe, fraud-free scholarly publishing.
View
... During the last few years, the Journal of Pakistan Medical Association has published papers for increasing awareness of predatory publishers and conferences among the local and regional academic community. [1][2][3][4][5] The debate on predatory publishing led to the idea of revising the terminology, given that such publishers are not "predators" and solely responsible for this dark side of science, but some unethical researchers who deliberately publish in these journals are also equally responsible. 6 That is, these unethical authors publish in predatory journals knowing that the existing system would not catch them. ...
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... 8,9 However, this does not hold true as evidence suggests that deceptive journals have duped researchers from almost all regions of the world, irrespective of their experience and academic ceredentials. [10][11][12][13] A study of 46,000 participants found that about 5% of researchers based in Italy published in deceptive journals. 10 Another study uncovered that millions of dollars were wasted on publishing funded research in these journals. ...
Publishing research during pandemics: Are you vulnerable to the COVID-19 or predatory publishers?
Article
Full-text available
  • May 2020
  • J Pakistan Med Assoc
The coronavirus disease-2019 outbreak has spread rapidly affecting 1.4 million people across the world in only four months. Healthcare fraternity is struggling to circumvent the consequences of this fast spreading infection and communicating their scientific discoveries through research publications. As a result, the scientific output on COVID-19 is growing rapidly and both the journal editors and authors are interested to publish results on scientific discoveries about it as soon as possible. However, novice and improperly trained authors are at high risk for getting duped by deceptive journals , which might keep their research unnoticed by the scientific and general community. This paper discusses these potential risks posed by deceptive (predatory) journals, for prospective authors and scientific community, during the COVID-19 outbreak. It also presents ways to address those risks and the role of journal editors and academic organisations.
View
... 22 Additional research exploring how pervasive publication within these journals is occurring among academicians is under way; however, the larger question of how academia will perceive and evaluate these publications within the promotion and tenure setting is yet to be answered. [23][24][25] Our study has some limitations. First, we used the contact information for grant awardees provided by the NIH and did not determine individual contact information based on awardees' names and institutions separately. ...
A cross-sectional study of predatory publishing emails received by career development grant awardees
Article
Full-text available
  • May 2019
Objective To investigate the scope of academic spam emails (ASEs) among career development grant awardees and the factors associated with the amount of time spent addressing them. Design A cross-sectional survey of career development grant investigators via an anonymous online survey was conducted. In addition to demographic and professional information, we asked investigators to report the number of ASEs received each day, how they determined whether these emails were spam and time they spent per day addressing them. We used bivariate analysis to assess factors associated with the amount of time spent on ASEs. Setting An online survey sent via email on three separate occasions between November and December 2016. Participants All National Institutes of Health career development awardees funded in the 2015 fiscal year. Main outcome measures Factors associated with the amount of time spent addressing ASEs. Results A total of 3492 surveys were emailed, of which 206 (5.9%) were returned as undeliverable and 96 (2.7%) reported an out-of-office message; our overall response rate was 22.3% (n=733). All respondents reported receiving ASEs, with the majority (54.4%) receiving between 1 and 10 per day and spending between 1 and 10 min each day evaluating them. The amount of time respondents reported spending on ASEs was associated with the number of peer-reviewed journal articles authored (p<0.001), a history of publishing in open access format (p<0.01), the total number of ASEs received (p<0.001) and a feeling of having missed opportunities due to ignoring these emails (p=0.04). Conclusions ASEs are a common distraction for career development grantees that may impact faculty productivity. There is an urgent need to mitigate this growing problem.
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... The e-mails rarely mention any handling charges or publication costs initially, although when a paper is accepted you are probably going to get a bill for several hundred US dollars or more [34]. The mails from predatory journals usually begin with salutations such as: People should refrain from submitting their articles to predatory journals, the titles of which are often minor modifications or additions to the titles of well-established periodicals [35,36]. An editorial published in NATURE referred to these predatory journals as "the dark-side of scientific publishing" [37]. ...
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Predatory Invitations from Journals: More Than Just a Nuisance?
Article
  • Feb 2017
Physicians and academic researchers are frequently targeted with spam invitations to submit manuscripts to predatory journals. This study was conducted to understand the nature and characteristics of these invitations. All spam e-mails received by an academic medical oncologist over a 3-month period were collected and categorized. Presumed predatory journal invitations were analyzed and cross-checked against Beall's list of "potential, probable, or possible predatory" journals and publishers. Invitations to submit to predatory journals were the most common single type of spam received. The Oncologist 2017;22:236-240.
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Soon more journals than authors?
Article
  • Dec 2015
  • ACTA PHYSIOL
We have gone through your previous article entitled "…." and it is our immense pleasure to invite you as a potential author to contribute a manuscript (research or review article) for consideration and publication in forthcoming issue of Journal of ….. You may also write a Short communication based on your previous article or an Editorial or an opinion article or commentary or case report or conference proceedings as per your expertise…. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
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  • Jan 2017
  • 236-276
  • M Clemons
  • E De Costa
  • M Silva
  • Aa Joy
  • Kd Cobey
  • S Mazzarello
  • C Stober
Clemons M, de Costa E Silva M, Joy AA, Cobey KD, Mazzarello S, Stober C, et al. Predatory Invitations from Journals: More Than Just a Nuisance?. Oncologist. 2017; 22: 236-40.
or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers (archived copies) [Online] 2017 Available from URL: https://web.archive.org/ web Withdrawal of accepted manuscript from predatory journal
  • Apr 2017
  • 2016
Scholarly Open Access. Potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers (archived copies). [Online] 2017 [Cited 2017 March 4]. Available from URL: https://web.archive.org/ web/20170112125427/https://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/. 5. Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Withdrawal of accepted manuscript from predatory journal. [Online] 2016 [Cited 2017
Potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers (archived copies)
  • Mar 2017
Scholarly Open Access. Potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers (archived copies). [Online] 2017 [Cited 2017 March 4]. Available from URL: https://web.archive.org/ web/20170112125427/https://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/.