In the pursuit of commercial gains in academia, publications that academics briefly call "predatory journals" or "clone journals" have begun to appear with increasing frequency. How can we identify rogue journals among thousands of reputable publishers? How to choose a journal for publication? These questions are answered in today's review.
What is a "predatory journal"?
"Predatory journal" is a periodical that copies the model of paid open access journals and profits from fees for published articles without adhering to established standards of scholarly publication. "Predators" copy journals with good reputation and claim the status of a rating publication. Under the guise of active publication activity, "predatory" publishers collect payments from researchers without providing full scientific publication services and availability of review in global databases.
Predatory journals are a negative phenomenon in the scientific sphere identified by the American librarian Jeffrey Bill. The librarian first introduced the term "predatory publication" in 2012, publishing his famous "Bill's list".
What are the different types of "predatory" publishers?
Unscrupulous journals are conditionally divided into 3 main categories:
Predatory journals - initially periodicals with a good reputation, indexed by the Scopus database, which later, due to commercial gain, begin to accept any articles for publication. As a result, such publications are excluded from the scientometric database.
Clone publishers - journals that completely copy existing scientific publications. Such fraudsters on behalf of a journal with a good image accept scientific papers for publication and payment for placing the material in the issue. Sometimes such publications even receive indexing of articles in Scopus, but later they will still be excluded from the database.
Fake journals is another type of "scientific fraud", when the publication activity of a non-existent journal is imitated. Such a dubious publication can be easily checked on the Scopus platform. The lack of indexing of the journal in the scientometric database characterizes it as a "predator".
How to recognize unfair journals?
"Predatory journals" can be identified by obvious signs, which we will give below:
- doubtful editions are ready to publish an article in a short period of time: from 3 days to one week
- the review procedure takes several calendar days or does not exist at all
- stated review in Scopus is not actually confirmed in the database
- self-citation is more than 40% of the articles
- payment for publication, but not for the work of editors, reviewers, and output of the issue
- placement of articles with signs of plagiarism
- excessively frequent or extremely infrequent formation of issues and publications of scientific articles
- Questionable metrics listed on the publication's website should also alert the scientist
- A combination of different disciplines, often from different fields of science
- Constant delays in the release of issues, failure to meet specified publication deadlines
Consequences of publishing in predatory journals
Researchers can face a variety of consequences for publishing in journals with questionable reputations. The most obvious of these are:
- Loss of time and, as a consequence, prospects of getting a degree, promotion and other opportunities more quickly
- financial losses associated with fraudulent actions of impostors
- loss of the author's article indexing in the Scopus database
The last point is the most negative consequence of publishing in "predatory" journals.
Recommendations for scientists on choosing a scientific publisher
- choose scientific journals that indicate indexing in the Scopus database, and also check whether the publication is actually reviewed in the database
- before sending an article to the editorial office, check the journal in “Bill's List”
- carefully familiarize yourself with the journal's publication activity, frequency of issues and their content
If you need help with choosing a suitable scientific journal or checking its image, the specialists of Scientific Publications are ready to fulfill publication tasks of any complexity. You can order the service "Publish in Scopus" with a free audit of your article and selection of suitable rating editions for publication. Leave a request on the site and we will contact you within a business day.
