Problems and challenges of predatory journals

Abstract

The companies publishing predatory journals are an emerging problem in the area of scientific literature as they only seek to drain money from authors without providing any customer service for the authors or their readership. These predatory journals try to attract new submissions by aggressive email advertising and high acceptance rates. But in turn, they do not provide proper peer review, and therefore, the scientific quality of submitted articles is questionable. This is important because more and more people, including patients, are reading such journals and rely on the information they provide. Consequently, predatory journals are a serious threat to the integrity of medical science, and it is crucial for scientists, physicians and even patients to be aware of this problem. In this review, we briefly summarize the history of the open access movement, as well as the rise of and roles played by predatory journals. In conclusion, young and inexperienced authors publishing in a predatory journal must be aware of the damage of their reputation, of inadequate peer review processes and that unprofitable journals might get closed and all published articles in that journal might be lost.

Citations of articles in predatory nursing journals

“…First, we used an updated version of Beall's list, which is maintained by an anonymous source. Criticisms of Beall's original list included a lack of transparency in the methodology for adding publishers and journals to the list, not seeking further information from publishers about issues with editorial and peer review processes, and inclusion of some new journals on the list without giving them adequate time to update their processes and websites (Richtig, Berger, Lange-Asschenfeldt, Aberer, & Richtig, 2018). However, the seven journals in this current project were in our original study of predatory nursing journals and determined to reflect characteristics of predatory journals (Oermann et al, 2016).…”

Knowledge and Influence of Predatory Journals in Dermatology: A Pan-Austrian Survey

“…This problematic issue has been addressed by Jeffrey Beall, a librarian at the University of Colorado, who created a list of journals and publishers with suspicious publishing ethics. Since most of these journals were interested only in increasing their revenue, he named them "predatory journals" and "predatory publishers" (6). Given this background, this study aimed to investigate whether physicians had knowledge of predatory journals and how this influenced their daily practice routines.…”

Analysis of Citation Patterns and Impact of Predatory Sources in the Nursing Literature

“…A major area of concern is the lack of or questionable peer review processes with predatory journals (Baker et al, 2018; Cobey et al, 2018; Cortegiani, Sanfilippo, et al, 2018; Memon, 2019; Oermann et al, 2016; Oermann et al, 2019; Richtig, Berger, Lange‐Asschenfeldt, Aberer, & Richtig, 2018). A scoping review of characteristics of predatory journals grouped them into six areas, one of which was having a poor or an incomplete peer review process on which to base decisions about articles to publish (Cobey et al, 2018).…”

“…These journals may offer a quick peer review, but without experts reviewing the quality of the research and accuracy of the information. The aim of peer review is to identify weaknesses in methodology, ethical concerns, and other issues related to the quality of the paper (Richtig et al, 2018). An article published without an adequate peer review may have significant flaws; this erroneous information may subsequently appear in legitimate journals through referencing of that work.…”