Penetration of Nigerian predatory biomedical open access journals 2007–2012: a bibliometric study

Abstract

This paper presents the bibliometric characteristics of 32 biomedical open access journals published by Academic Journals and International Research Journals – the two Nigerian publishers in Jeffery Beall's list of 23 predatory open access publishers in 2012. Data about the journals and the authors of their articles were collected from the websites of the publishers, Google Scholar and Web of Science. As at December 2012, the journals had together produced a total of 5,601 papers written by 5,599 authors, and received 12,596 citations. Authors from Asia accounted for 56.79% of the publications; those from Africa wrote 28.35% while Europe contributed 7.78%. Authors from Africa accounted for 18.25% of the citations these journals received, and this is about one‐third the number of citations by authors in Asia (54.62%). At country level, India ranks first in the top 10 citer countries, while Nigeria, the host country of the journals, ranked eighth. More in‐depth studies are required to develop further information about the journals such as how much scientific information the journals contain, as well as the science literacy of the authors and the editorial.

Linguistic differences between well‐established and predatory journals: a keyword analysis of two journals in political science

“…There certainly exist good grounds to support this argument as it has been found that some articles are even computer‐generated (Xia, ). However, as Ezinwa Nwagwu and Ojemeni explain: ‘More in‐depth studies are required to develop further information about the journals such as how much scientific information the journals contain, as well as the science literacy of the authors and the editorial’ (Ezinwa Nwagwu & Ojemeni, , p. 23). In fact, Kurt () reports that one of the reasons why authors publish in predatory journals is the lack of knowledge of the appropriate scientific methods and lack of the ability to report the results of their work adequately.…”

A Bibliometric Analysis of Health and Medical Journals: Issues in Medical Scholarly Communication in Africa

“…Another related study by Falagas, Karavasiou, and Bliziotis (2006) found that Africa produced Another recent study by Nwagwu and Ojemeni (2015) looked at the penetration of Nigeria biomedical open access journals and found out that Nigeria, China, and India make the highest contributions of articles to the journals and citation penetration is higher from Asia and Africa. It appears there is no study that has been conducted to focus on health and medical research in Africa generally, and none has used a database of African origin, hence the need for the present study.…”

Counterpoints about predatory open access and knowledge publishing in Africa

“…It has become very easy to deliver low-quality research in the OA regime. In a recent paper, Nwagwu and Ojemeni (2015) have shown that that these journals have penetrated the global research arena.…”

“…Experts on the subject matter are therefore scarce. In a bibliometric analysis of open journals in Nigeria, Nwagwu and Ojemeni (2015) raised the issue of science literacy as a crucial element in understanding the perception and practice of OA publishing in the country. OA will be most effective when combined with science and academic literacy training, effective signposting, and creating a research culture and environment that supports and promotes critical thinking.…”

“…By synthesizing and interpreting events around OA, this author interrogates the social and technical factors that confront OA advantages in the Africa region. Of particular interest is the emergence of substandard publishing now known as predatory (Beall, 2009), or dodgy (Truth, 2012), or amateurish (Nwagwu and Ojemeni, 2015).…”