Predatory journals—also called fraudulent, deceptive, or pseudo-journals—are publications that claim to be legitimate scholarly journals but misrepresent their publishing practices. The list below is a selection of what we think are the most prominent and easy to spot indicators. —— BEALLSLIST.NET —— BEALL'S LIST OF PREDATORY JOURNALS AND PUBLISHERS. By 2016, that number had grown to 923 publishers. Even if the temptation is high, you are harming yourself: Yes, you can get around predatory journals. We shall gather and present more information regarding this issue on the coming posts to help the academics to identify and avoid falling into the trap of predatory journals. They offer an instructional video, a checklist similar to the Journal Evaluation Tool and generally lots of good tips for checking the journal’s credibility. Predatory journals/publishers, also described as "questionable" journals, can be defined as journals that lack discernible scholarship, academic rigor or credibility, and use aggressive practices to recruit authors and editors. Predatory journals have a bad reputation for taking your money and then publishing your work, often badly and in a place that few other authors will be able to find, read, or cite your study. Do you want to write a journal paper? These journals act as predators and consider the authors, often new or inexperienced ones, as their prey and lure them into their traps. The website now allows you to search quite flexibly, however it requires a login to view the detailed record of the journal. #25: The journal is not read or known by your colleagues. Finally, ask a librarian! The email started in a friendly way and invited us to consider reviewing a recently submitted paper to the journal. We wrote a friendly message back to the Editor to explain that we couldn’t accept reviewing the paper due to lack of expertise. If you have published in a respected journal, if you attended a conference or your name and email address come up on projects or other research-related websites, you will be asked to submit, review papers or even to join their editorial boards. Journals Articles. The Beall's list of predatory publishing contains more than +1000 entries of predatory publishers and journals that cannot be easily searched manually. They were used to create the original Beall’s list and are used now for the updated lists. How to avoid predatory journals—a. Some authors might feel compelled to take the irresistible offer, despite assuming or even knowing that it is a false promise. < EUR 150). Journals claiming to be open access either retain copyright of published research or fail to mention copyright. #11: The journal has a very small editorial board or an editorial board that is still to be announced. #5: The aims and scope of the journal are not defined or rather vague. Hijacked Journals: An Emerging Challenge for Scholarly Publishing. #17: The journal is not transparent about the editorial policies that they apply. So far so good, but we wondered why they had picked us as potential reviewers. One can use the criteria used by Jeffrey Beall for determining predatory publishers. #3: The journal defines no clear publication date. This is where it’s back to the same question: how to identify predatory/fake journals? Instructions: first, find the journal’s publisher – it is usually written at the bottom of the journal’s webpage or in the “About” section.Then simply enter the publisher’s name or its URL in the search box above. Predatory journals and deceptive publishing practices are a pain! Med Health Care and Philos 20: 163. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-016-9740-3, European Association of Science Editors (EASE). #15: The journal sends open calls/unsolicited emails to many authors to invite them to submit papers to them. The strength of a journal is reflected in the members of its editorial board. Nowadays, your inbox or your spam folder might be flooded with requests to submit your paper to any number of these journals. We want to show you how to avoid falling into the predatory journal trap that only exploits researchers and focuses on profits. These journals quack like ducks but sink like stones. To help, we’ve created a very useful checklist, our Predatory Journal Test that you can consult to find out whether your submission will go to one of these type of journals. Archived version of “Beall’s List of Predatory Journals and Publishers”. The problem had ballooned into a danger. They seem to be mostly keen on collecting fees from authors in return for what they promise – to publish your paper FAST. The archived version of Beall’s list is available at Beall’s List of Predatory Journals and Publishers. Let’s get a quick overview of the potential issues of misconduct and unethical behaviour that you may find from predatory journals: All the behaviours listed above should give you enough reason to assume that an ethical and respected scholar would not consider publishing in any of these outlets. Investigating journals: The dark side of publishing. Searching the JCR Master List has improved in recent years. Don't hesitate to ask for a second opinion. #24: The journal (if it is open access) is not listed on the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Rele, et al., LMU Librarian Publications & Presentations 40 (2017), Shamseer, et al., BMC Medicine 15:28 (2017), Click here to search JCR master journal list. F1000Research, 7, 1001. Have you ever wondered how to spot a so-called predatory journal? (2018). DOAJ in numbers. Although the list pertains biomed journals, it can be easily applied to all other topics. An anonymous group started the initiative ‘Stop Predatory Journals’ listing some 1,300 possible predatory journals, based on Beall’s list. We never received a response on our message. This journal blacklist, based on 52 criteria developed by Beall, was forced to shut down after almost a decade due to increasing threats and political issues. Neither of us had any expertise in medical research, certainly not in the specific medical topic of the paper under review. Selected publishers, journals but also members of the open-access community had objected against Beall’s understanding of predatory journals. Andersen, R. 2019. On the above-mentioned Cabell’s Blacklist currently almost 12,000 so-called predatory journals are listed (Andersen 2019). Make sure to search through journals only, unless you want to find an open-access article (see picture below). Searching DOAJ database is quite easy – you just need to enter the journal’s name, ISSN or the journal’s publisher. Crackdown on these journals although are somewhat hard to perform as the definition of predatory journals is vague and questionable. #2: The journal promises a very fast publication process. Many of these initiatives had the best of intentions to capitalise on the possibility to share research papers on the Internet, but some unfortunately saw it as an opportunity to make financial profit at the expenses of the publishing system. Publishers Standalone Journals Vanity Press Contact Other Hello. Eriksson, S.,  Helgesson, G. 2017. Non-predatory journals tend to have a much more focused scope, as they want to address just single area and not spread themselves too thinly. There is no regular publication activity visible. Unfortunately, some disreputable journals are launched without finding any highly regarded scientists in the field to serve on the editorial board. 2017. Finding out you've been the victim of a scam is never fun. Butler, D. 2013. Simple Warning Signs That Will Help. Their search engine is quite flexible. #1: The journal asks for a submission rather than publication fee. [N.B: As of 2020, this product has been renamed Predatory Reports.] The scope of interest includes non-biomedical subjects alongside biomedical topics. Predatory journals arose with the onset of the open-access movement. A good review of the value of this list is available on the Scholarly Kitchen Blog. These can still be very decent journals. Research papers around the world are increasing exponentially but so are the number of retractions. Take your envisioned journal through our Predatory Journal Test and make sure your paper, your money, and your career are in safe hands. However, a serious criticism of Beall’s list is its reliability. If you receive an email inviting you to submit your work to a journal which you are not familiar with, it is extremely likely that it is from a predatory publisher. It is not very informative and contains factual mistakes and language errors. Shen, C., Björk, B.-C. 2015. The journal also receives stronger papers. Papers are also accepted within very short time. #12: The journal does not list contact addresses of editors, editorial board members or the publisher. The rise and rise of predatory journals. A study by Shen & Björk (2015) revealed a rise of active predatory journals from 1,800 in 2010 to 8,000 in 2016. Description of the manuscript handling process is lacking. The fees are typically rather low compared to established, legitimate journals (e.g. With over 4,000 predatory journals (according to Cabell’s Blacklist), here are a few things to look out for and signs that give away a bogus journal. Many predatory journals will make up an impact factor in an attempt to appear reputable. Journal Evaluation Tool. JCR recently also introduced a service where if you upload your manuscript, they can tell you which JCR-indexed journals match the topics within your article. of Potential Predatory Journals and Publishers. Follow the simple guide written by the authors to score the journal of your choice.Rele, et al., LMU Librarian Publications & Presentations 40 (2017). Don’t do it! Search by keywords: In the field: Search. You might first be notified – after acceptance of your paper – that you have to pay a fee at all. Be part of an amazing group of academics from all over the world! Therefore, we think it crucial to summarise the main features of these journals for you and how you can identify them. Potential predatory and legitimate biomedical journals: can you tell the difference? If so, please sign up to receive our free guides. Imagine, what would happen if we accepted the invitation to review – without any qualification to do so? Like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, these tricky publications are as threatening as they are clever. Predatory Journals take advantage of authors by asking them to publish for a fee without providing peer-review or editing services. #17: Predatory journals: How to identify them? Something else that you can do is to run the site content through text-matching tools and find out if the content has been pirated from other sites. Journals listed as emergent do not have an established practice or reputation and should be carefully considered. Contact addresses can also be incomplete. Quickly, the list grew to several thousand journals and publishers accused of unethical journal publication practices. The term ‘predatory journal’ was coined by Jeffrey Beall, a librarian at the University of Colorado, who observed and systematically analysed a growing number of exploitative academic journals charging author fees without proper quality-check of the submitted and published papers. #9: The paper titles and abstracts contain errors. Here a number of academics came together to try to define what constitutes a predatory journal. Figures are not to scale and have been approximated. When good scientists are involved in running a journal, the peer review process is strong and thorough. List due to Shamseer, et al., BMC Medicine 15:28 (2017). Journal Evaluation Tool is a scoring sheet that anyone can use to determine the credibility of a journal. #23: The journal is listed on Beall’s list of predatory journals or any other journal blacklist. They can find you very easily. It has a very low number of published papers and issues so far. Thus, this website will work as a proxy for Beall's list of predatory publishing as well as portal for scholars and researchers to report their concerns about any predatory journal or conference. ‘Predatory’ open access: A longitudinal study of article volumes and market characteristics. Always make sure that the journal you found has the same website and ISSN as the journal you are looking for. Beall’s List. The standalone journals list published by Jeffrey Beall might be the most commonly cited in the literature. Inside academia, Beall had received a lot of recognition for his list and for systematically analysing and identifying predatory journal practices, which many scholars were using to avoid falling into these journals’ traps. If you want more help with writing a great journal paper, join Paper Writing Academy. Shamseer, L., Moher, D., Maduekwe, O., Turner, L., Barbour, V., Burch, R.. , J., Galipeau, J., Roberts, J., Shea, B.J. What are the exact practices that so-called predatory journals apply? The Directory of Open Access Journals. We looked through the various available lists of criteria to identify predatory journals: One provided by Beall, Eriksson & Helgesson (2017), Rele et al. We still get them! Predatory journals are scam publishers that charge authors fees upfront, but do not provide the service they promise. #4: The journal claims or seems to be rather new. It is not uncommon to find that the journal has published only 2 issues in an entire year. Dadkhah, M., Borchardt, G. 2016. Take our Predatory Journal Test including all the criteria listed above. Conditions of research papers. Straumsheim, C. 2017. You might get charged an exorbitant rate for publishing your paper. They apply poor ethical procedures by claiming to live-up to the established quality control standards in peer-review, but do so only on a superficial level. They do not publish in nor read this journal. Please see the Nature (Journal ) Comment on predatory journals. Spotting predatory journals is quite easy in most cases. Even more unethical! 11,341 journals without APC s. 15,615 journals. BMC Medicine 13: 230. #21: The journal is not indexed in any of the established journal databases such as. Some common forms of predatory publishing practices include falsely claiming to provide peer review, hiding informatio … Since the closing down of Beall’s list, several successor initiatives have appeared ‘Cabell’s International’ offers ‘The Journal Blacklist’ on subscription basis. This means their shares of predatory reviews ranged from one to 25% of all reviews. (2017), the ‘Think, Check, Submit’ initiative and the anonymous initiative Stop Predatory Journals. European Association of Science Editors (EASE). #19: The journal requires authors to transfer copyright despite claiming it is open access. From the multitude of criteria (over 65 items) provided, we made a concise selection for you that should enable you to check yourself. #8: The journal has a very high acceptance rate of papers. We looked into the traps and obstacles for you and came up with a set of 25 criteria that can help you to identify unethical or deceptive behaviour in journal publications. Information on whether and how journal content will be digitally preserved is absent. Are predatory journals the publishing equivalent of what Donald Trump might call “a bad hombre ”? Where not to find journal articles: Predatory journals: One major drawback that has gained traction thanks to the open access movement is the phenomenon of predatory journals. #10: The journal claims to be very international but has no or very few papers from well-known or international authors. Predatory journals-also called fraudulent, deceptive, or pseudo-journals-are publications that claim to be legitimate scholarly journals but misrepresent their publishing practices. A cross-sectional comparison. #18: The journal claims to have an impact factor despite the fact it is a new journal in which case it cannot have an impact factor yet. The website contains spelling and grammar errors. Embarrassment. Yet, it seems many, particularly, young and inexperienced researchers that feel the pressure to publish papers still fall for these journals. Inside Higher Ed, January 18, 2017. do not apply a standardised peer-review process, may not send your paper to peer-reviewers or may not apply any editing or improvement of them before publishing, publish a high number of low-quality papers, are more likely to publish fake or hoax papers, as they do not identify them as such due to their poor quality control, send spam emails to thousands of researchers asking them to contribute to the journal, list members on editorial boards without those people agreeing or knowing of it, make up names of editorial board members or authors, copy material, design and advertise as established and legitimate journals, may even hijack established journals by setting up journals with identical names and similar websites, make up or fake journal metrics such as impact factors and others, state wrong or misleading information about the size and the location of the publisher. 40. In 2011, Beall’s list included 18 publishers. Your paper eventually will no longer be accessible if the publisher doesn’t have a long-term storage policy. International Association of Scientific, Technical, & Medical Publishers (STM). 5,501,361 article records. #16: Communication from the journal includes poor language, spelling mistakes or grammar errors. #7: The journal requests manuscripts to be submitted via email. Due to constant problems with Weebly service, we decided to move to an independent server. The majority of these predatory journals will take payments without ever publishing the work, while others publish articles without any form of an editorial or peer review process. While most predatory journals will probably be covered by Google Scholar your work won't be as visible if it's missing from other research databases. Allen, R. 2018. #13: The Editor-in-Chief of this journal is also the Editor-in-Chief of (many) other journals with widely different subjects. The word “predator” suggests fangs and claws, but unfortunately, predatory journals are not so easy to spot. We can also help you to find a reputable journal in your subject area. Rele, S., Kennedy, M., Blas, N. 2017. Jeffrey Beall, the most renowned, started to set up a list of predatory journals in 2008. If the journal is in your area of research, you should recognize some of the names on the editorial board. The number of predatory journals and papers published in these journals is continuously growing.

how to find predatory journals

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