Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-r7xzm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T12:26:10.877Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Rise of Predatory Publishing: How To Avoid Being Scammed

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Sarah M. Ward*
Affiliation:
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523
*
Author's E-mail: sarah.ward@colostate.edu

Abstract

The rise of on-line open access (OA) has profound implications for academic publishing, not least the shift from subscribers to authors as the primary transactional partners for peer-reviewed journals. Although OA offers many benefits, it also paves the way for predatory publishers, who exploit the author-as-customer model to obtain revenue from author fees while providing few of the editorial services associated with academic publishing. Predatory journals publish papers with little or no peer review, and often disguise their real geographical location while exaggerating their scope and editorial expertise. Such journals also attempt to attract authors by promising unrealistically rapid editorial decisions while falsely claiming peer review, and fabricating impact factors and inclusion in academic indexes. The explosive increase in predatory OA journals is not only a risk to inexperienced authors, but also threatens to undermine the OA model and the legitimate communication of research.

Type
Special Topic
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 by the Weed Science Society of America 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Associate editor for this paper: William Vencill, University of Georgia.

References

Literature Cited

Adler, P (2015) National Science Foundation releases plan for public access to NSF-funded research. Association of Research Libraries. http://www.arl.org/news/community-updates/3553-national-science-foundation-releases-plan-for-public-access-to-nsf-funded-research/. Accessed May 11, 2016Google Scholar
Anderson, R (2014) Housecleaning at the Directory of Open Access Journals. The Scholarly Kitchen. https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2014/08/14/housecleaning-at-the-directory-of-open-access-journals/. Accessed May 4, 2016Google Scholar
Anonymous (2016) The Thompson Reuters impact factor. Thompson Reuters Web of Science. http://wokinfo.com/essays/impact-factor/. Accessed April 27, 2016Google Scholar
Beall, J (2012) Predatory publishers are corrupting open access. Nature 489:179 Google Scholar
Beall, J (2013) Look out for bogus impact factor companies. https://scholarlyoa.com/2013/08/06/bogus-impact-factor-companies/. Accessed May 9, 2016Google Scholar
Beall, J (2015) New fake metric company sells nine bogus metrics to publishers. https://scholarlyoa.com/2015/09/17/new-fake-metric-company-sells-nine-bogus-metrics-to-publishers/#more-5957. Accessed May 9, 2016Google Scholar
Björk, BC (2011) A study of innovative features in scholarly open access journals. J Med Internet Res 13:e115. DOI: 10.2196/jmir.1802Google Scholar
Bohannon, J (2013) Who's afraid of peer review? Science 342:6065 Google Scholar
Bohannon, J (2015) How to hijack a journal. Science. DOI: 10. 1126/science.aad7463Google Scholar
Butler, D (2013) Investigating journals: the dark side of publishing Nature 495:433435 Google Scholar
Casassus, B (2014) Paper claiming GM link with tumors republished. Nature. DOI:10.1038/nature.2014.15463Google Scholar
Dadkhah, M (2015) New types of fraud in the academic world by cyber criminals. J Adv Nurs. DOI: 10.1111/jan.12856Google Scholar
Gutierrez, FRS, Beall, J, Forero, DA (2015) Spurious alternative impact factors: The scale of the problem from an academic perspective Bioessays 37:474476 Google Scholar
Howard, J (2012) A push grows abroad for open access to publicly financed research. Chronicle Higher Educ. http://chronicle.com/article/Push-for-Open-Access-Goes/133561. Accessed May 11, 2016Google Scholar
Kendzior, S (2013) Should academics write for free? Chronicle Higher Educ. https://chroniclevitae.com/news/90-should-academics-write-for-free. Accessed May 10, 2016Google Scholar
Kolata, G (2013) Scientific articles accepted (personal checks, too). http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/health/for-scientists-an-exploding-world-of-pseudo-academia.html?. Accessed May 4, 2016Google Scholar
Mesnage, R, Moesch, C, Le Grand, R, Lauthier, G, de Vendômois, JS, Gress, S, Séralini, GE (2012) Glyphosate exposure in a farmer's family J Environ Prot 3:10011003 Google Scholar
McCook, A (2015) Predatory journals published more than 400,000 papers in 2014. http://retractionwatch.com/2015/09/30/most-predatory-publishing-occurs-in-asia-africa-report/. Accessed May 4, 2016Google Scholar
Miller, HI, Wager, R (2016) Dirty secrets of fraudulent “advocacy research.” Nat Rev. http://www.nationalreview.com/article/431946/genetically-engineered-food-advocacy-research-fraudulent-science/. Accessed May 8, 2016Google Scholar
Public Knowledge Project (2014) Open Journal Systems. https://pkp.sfu.ca/ojs/. Accessed April 29, 2016.Google Scholar
Safi, M (2014) Journal accepts bogus paper requesting removal from mailing list. http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/nov/25/journal-accepts-paper-requesting-removal-from-mailing-list. Accessed April 15, 2016Google Scholar
Séralini G-E (2016) The experience of one of the first GM crop farmers in Europe Scholarly J Agric Sci 6:910 Google Scholar
Shen, C, Björk, BC (2015) “Predatory” open access: a longitudinal study of article volumes and market characteristics. BMC Med 13:230. DOI: 10.1186/s12916-015-0469-2Google Scholar
Spier, R (2002) The history of the peer review process Trends Biotechnol 20:357358 Google Scholar
Stone, TE, Rossiter, RC (2015) Predatory publishing: take care that you are not caught in the Open Access net Nurs Health Sci 17:277279 Google Scholar
Testa, J (2016) The Thomson Reuters journal selection process. http://wokinfo.com/essays/journal-selection-process/. Accessed May 9, 2016Google Scholar
United Kingdom Copyright Service (2015) Fact Sheet P-01: U.K. Copyright Law. https://copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p01_uk_copyright_law. Accessed June 12, 2016Google Scholar
U.S. Copyright Office (2015) Circular 34: Copyright Protection Not Available for Names, Titles, or Short Phrases. http://copyright.gov/circs/circ34.pdf. Accessed June 12, 2016Google Scholar
Van Noorden, R (2014) Publishers withdraw more than 120 gibberish papers. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature.2014.14763Google Scholar
Yong-Hak, J (2013) Web of Science. http://wokinfo.com/media/pdf/WoSFS_08_7050.pdf. Accessed May 9, 2016Google Scholar