PLANT SCIENCE BULLETIN SUMMER 2018 VOLUME 64 NUMBER 2
A PUBLICATION OF THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
IN THIS ISSUE...
Theresa Culley on the perils of Rebekah Mohn wins Triarch Report from Congressional Visits predatory publishers..p. 96 photo contest....p. 79 Day participants.... p. 81 SPECIAL FEATURES
How to Avoid Predatory Journals When Publishing Your Work PubMed. Many predatory journals purposely Introduction dupe authors—especially young investigators For researchers looking to publish their work, and academics from low-resource countries— there now exists a dizzying array of possible into submitting manuscripts with deceptive outlets. Over the past decade, the publication advertising designed to resemble legitimate landscape has exploded from print-based, scholarly journals (Beall, 2012, 2016a). subscription journals published by respected scienti c societies and legitimate publishing companies to an almost equal number of Key Words disreputable, open-access journals backed fake impact factor; open access; predatory by for-pro t companies (Beall, 2012, 2016b; journal; predatory publisher. Shen and Björk, 2015; Beninger et al., 2016; Laine and Winker, 2017). Known as predatory Acknowledgements journals (Beall, 2012), these journals charge publication fees with promises of rapid e author thanks R. Hund, B. Parada, and A. publication but oen have a sham peer review McPherson for their encouragement to write process, leading to low article quality (Beall, this manuscript; they were also extremely helpful in forwarding relevant articles and 2016a, b; Eriksson and Helgesson, 2017; blog postings on the subject. anks also to Shamseer et al., 2017). Consequently, these T. Serota, D. Spooner, and two anonymous journals are not accepted for indexing in major reviewers for helpful comments and bibliographic databases, like Web of Science or suggestions on this manuscript.
By Theresa Culley Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati, 614 Rieveschl Hall, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0006 E-mail: [email protected], Tel: 513-556-9705
Manuscript received 1 June 2018; revision accepted 19 June 2018. 96 PSB 64 (2) 2018
In some cases, predatory publishers even called an “article processing charge,” or APC). create counterfeit websites of respected Although the intent of the open access model journals to deceitfully obtain manuscripts— was honorable, it has now been exploited by essentially “hijacking” the legitimate journals for-pro t predatory journals focused solely (Tin et al., 2014; Beall, 2016a; Eriksson and on increasing their own income by requiring Helgesson, 2017; see https://predatoryjournals. author fees (ranging from US$100 to several com/hijacked/). Many predatory publishers thousand dollars) on as many articles as state that they are located in the U.S., Canada, possible without any concern for quality or Australia, and the U.K., but are actually in scienti c rigor. Although not all open access other countries (Beall, 2012; Gasparyan et journals are predatory—many are indeed al., 2015; Shamseer et al., 2017) where many legitimate—all predatory journals are open predatory journals originate. Predatory access. publishers have even created sham “meetings” and “conferences,” in which they divide up e extent of predatory journals is never more ballrooms in a hotel in a popular tourist city apparent than through “sting operations” in to hold multiple “conferences” together on the which bogus manuscripts are submitted to same weekend, with limited sta and very few journals to test whether they would publish a attendees (Hunziker, 2017). In short, these clearly awed paper. In one classic example, entities are scams targeting academic authors a working neuroscientist and anonymous for their own nancial bene t (Anderson, blogger submitted a nonsensical Star Wars– 2017) and to “generate pro ts rather than inspired study to nine journals in response promote academic scholarship” (Stratford, to e-mailed invitations (Neuroskeptic, 2017). 2012). Consequently, authors must carefully Written by the ctional Dr. Lucas McGeorge navigate where to submit their papers for and Dr. Annette Kin, the manuscript detailed scienti c dissemination (Barroga, 2015; “midi-chlorians,” or “microscopic life forms” Eriksson and Helgesson, 2017). said to live inside the cells of Jedi and give them their powers. If that were not enough to warrant is proliferation of predatory journals can be rejection along with references to “Yoda’s traced to a relatively recent shi in publication ataxia” and “Wookie’s Disease,” the manuscript models (Beninger et al., 2016), but the reality also included an embedded monologue about is that anyone with a computer and internet a Dark Sith Lord. Yet, four journals accepted connection can create a “journal.” In the and published the clearly ctitious paper. past, traditionally printed journals were large Just a few days aer the sting was publicized, complex operations, nancially supported by all four journals deleted the paper (which is personal and library subscriptions. Although available by the author at: https://www.scribd. this ensured high quality of published articles, com/document/354932509/Mitochondria- one disadvantage was that readership was Structure-Function-and-Clinical-Relevance). potentially limited; non-subscribers could only read articles if they personally paid for In yet another case, a joke manuscript that the journal or had access to it through their consisted entirely of repetitions of seven words institution. e open access model reversed (“Get Me O Your F------Mailing List”; http:// this idea so that the published paper is www.scs.stanford.edu/~dm/home/papers/ freely available to all readers, aer authors remove.pdf), complete with obviously bogus themselves pay the publication cost (typically gures, was accepted by the International 97 PSB 64 (2) 2018
Journal of Advanced Computer Technology in other cases, predatory journals can charge 2014, but the author declined the fee of $150 fees that are much lower (median = $100 per (Stromberg, 2014a). At least one anonymous article) than the open access fees of higher reviewer rated the manuscript as “excellent.” quality legitimate journals ($2500 to $3000; Shamseer et al., 2017). In this way, predatory Finally, a reporter for the Ottawa Citizen journals can attract more authors and publish constructed an entirely ctional manuscript more articles, garnering more pro t for the that combined the topics of soil, cancer journal at the expense of quality. treatment, and Mars by cutting and pasting text from valid scienti c papers. He submitted Publishing in a predatory journal can also be the manuscript to 18 journals, and 8 of those detrimental to a researcher’s career because agreed to publish the paper for a fee ranging institutions are now recognizing their low from $1000 to $5000 (Stromberg, 2014b). quality. Speci cally, articles in illegitimate Clearly, there was no peer review or editorial journals are increasingly being discounted oversight in any of these cases. from the publication record of scientists seeking employment or promotion. For example, the Department of Biological WHY CARE? Sciences at the University of Cincinnati recently revised their promotion and tenure Authors must be aware of these predatory requirements to speci cally exclude articles journals for several reasons (Hunziker, 2017; published in predatory journals. e concern Rydholm, 2017), not the least of which for institutions is that unscrupulous authors is their unethical nature, promotion of may intentionally pad their dossiers by counterfeit science, and the “watering down” sending their manuscripts to these fake and devaluation of solid scienti c research. journals because of guaranteed acceptance Furthermore, some predatory journals are not (Beall, 2017; Kolata, 2017). is also applies transparent about their publication process to unknowing authors who may be duped into (Beall, 2016a), sometimes tricking authors submitting an article to a predatory journal. into paying exorbitant fees. An example is as follows: An author submits a manuscript in e ongoing proliferation of predatory response to a journal’s spam e-mail request, journals also causes confusion among authors but the manuscript is immediately published and readers, endangering the reputation (indicating no peer review) and the author of legitimate journals. For example, some is then invoiced a large amount of money legitimate open access journals in developing —usually over $1000. If the now-suspicious countries or journals that are newly launched author asks to withdraw the manuscript, the may be improperly labeled as “predatory” publisher refuses unless a “withdrawal fee” is (Regier, 2018). is can further exacerbate paid. In short, the author must pay either the existing biases in scholarly publishing against publication fee or the withdrawal fee because non-Western and non-English studies, even the manuscript cannot be submitted elsewhere though these legitimate journals may serve as since it is already considered published important publishing outlets in critical areas (Stratford, 2012; Hunziker, 2017). According of the world. to Beall (2016a), this is akin to holding the manuscript “hostage” until a fee is paid. In So how can researchers—especially those just 98 PSB 64 (2) 2018 beginning their publishing career—know journals. In early 2017, Cabell debuted a where to publish their work and speci cally, Blacklist as well as a Whitelist (Anderson, how to avoid inadvertently submitting their 2017; Chawla, 2018). In contrast to Beall’s manuscripts to an inferior, predatory journal? List, Cabell’s Blacklist is not freely available but requires a subscription, with prices set institutionally. SIGNS OF PREDATION e publishing community has also been e rst list of predatory publishers and working to address the issue of predatory stand-alone journals appeared in 2012 as a journals and publishers. In 2013, the blog titled Scholarly Open Access by Je rey Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Beall, a scholarly communications librarian at developed Principles of Transparency and Best the University of Colorado (Beall, 2012). Beall Practice in Scholarly Publishing, which included had become concerned about the proliferation 16 guidelines for member organizations of low-quality, for-pro t, online-only journals on how to best promote transparency and that masqueraded as legitimate publishing scienti c rigor (COPE, 2014). ese guidelines outlets. He rst coined the term “predatory” are also helpful for authors in con rming the in reference to these publishers and journals scienti c validity of any journal. For example, (Beall, 2016a). e impetus for his list started they require member journals to conduct in the 1990s when many academic libraries peer-review using experts in the eld (not in North America, facing declining library only the editorial sta ), to possess a journal budgets and increasing subscription prices name that cannot be easily confused with along with the appearance of many new another journal (and thus mislead authors), academic elds, were forced to become more and full disclosure of names, aliations, and selective in their journal subscriptions (Beall, contact information for the editorial board 2017). As poor-quality, predatory journals and sta . If any journal or publisher violates began to increase in number, Beall created one or more of these points, it must address his list to share this information with other the issue satisfactorily or risk losing their librarians who were considering how to re ne membership in COPE, the Directory of Open their subscription lists. Known as “Beall’s List,” Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access this resource became very popular, although Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), it had a limitation in that some publishers and/or the World Association of Medical could have a mix of predatory and seemingly Editors (WAME). legitimate journals. Unfortunately, Beall shut down his blog in 2017 following pressure In addition, several legitimate publishers from his employer, caused in part by threats and library groups started an initiative of lawsuits by some of the very publishers he in 2015 called inkCheckSubmit (http:// had identi ed as “predatory” (Beall, 2017). thinkchecksubmit.org) to educate authors Although an archived Beall’s List is still being about what to look for when selecting a journal updated today by an anonymous researcher in which to publish (Beall, 2016b). Another (see Chawla, 2018), listing of predatory resource to identify deceptive journals or journals has now been taken over by Cabell’s publishers was created by the Council of International (http://www2.cabells.com), Science Editors (2018). However, even these a well-regarded publisher of a directory of resources do not prevent unethical, predatory 99 PSB 64 (2) 2018 journals from continuing to market to and “peer review” rather than to ad-hoc experts engage unsuspecting (or deceitful) authors. in their eld Based on published resources (e.g., COPE, 2014; Tin et al., 2014; Beall, 2016a,b; Beninger • Asks the recipient to also send their resume et al., 2016; Eriksson and Helgesson, 2017; to be considered for their editorial board Hunziker, 2017; Laine and Winker, 2017; • Falsely claims to be indexed by databases Shamseer et al., 2017; Council of Science such as Web of Science, PubMed, or SCO- Editors, 2018), I created a combined checklist PUS to help authors identify whether a given journal is predatory or legitimate. • Falsely claims to be a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA) or COPE, or if an online journal, COMMON RED FLAGS OF deceptively claims to be registered in the Di- rectory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) A PREDATORY JOURNAL • Direct marketing e-mails oen contain Authors should be wary of journals containing spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, and more than one of the following ags when the use of pretentious and ostentatious considering where to submit their work for words (“honored”, “impressive”, “eminent”) publication: • E-mails requesting submissions are sent Journal Information: multiple times, spamming potential authors • Journal name could be easily confused with • In the e-mail, authors are asked to send their a di erent legitimate journal manuscript as an attachment without any • Only a small number of articles are pub- indication of a website for veri cation of the lished per year, with articles typically of poor authenticity of the journal; the e-mail ad- quality dress may be personal (i.e., a gmail address)
• Focus of the journal is very broad, oen Website: encompassing more than one eld of study • Appearance and/or content of website may that are usually not treated together mimic another journal or publisher’s website • Title of the journal includes “International,” • Website contains many grammatical errors “World,” “American,” “European,” “British,” and/or images with poor resolution (having “Innovative,” or “Advanced” [Note that this been copied from other online sites) also pertains to some legitimate journals.] • Publisher has no functional telephone num- • Editorial board is not clearly de ned or ber or postal address, or consists of a resi- consists of an inordinately large number of dential address researchers (many non-experts) from dif- ferent locations around the world • Full names of editors and their aliations are not provided • Claims an unrealistic peer review-to-publi- cation turnaround time (e.g., one week) • Names and contact information of editori- al sta are not provided; editorial assistant • Articles are sent to their editorial board for 100 PSB 64 (2) 2018
may only be known by their rst name or • e advertising policy is not clearly stated a combination of two typical American rst names • e method of access for readers, including subscription fees or pay per view, is not pro- • e periodicity of publication is not clearly vided stated and/or is inconsistent • Peer reviewing process is not adequately de- scribed A TEST CASE To better understand the challenges faced • Uses words such as “impact factor” or “in- by researchers seeking a publication outlet, I dex factor” for non-existent organizations; collected all e-mails I received over a three- or mentions indices, such as Google Scholar month period (October 2017 to January 2018) (which does not consider the quality of any that invited submission of a manuscript to a listed articles) or Index Copernicus journal. From these e-mails, I extracted and • Does not clearly indicate information about compared the journal names, publishers, the ownership and/or management of a characteristics of the e-mail (sender, contact journal information, grammar, etc.), and frequency of contact. I then used the checklist above, • Copyright information is not readily appar- Beall’s List of publishers and some stand-alone ent or provided on the website; publisher journals, and Cabell’s Blacklist of journals may in fact retain the copyright to determine whether the journal/publisher referenced in each message was legitimate or • No clear statement about research integrity predatory. and how misconduct will be dealt with; no statement about con icts of interest of edi- In all, I received 86 e-mails during the 103- tors, reviewers, and authors day collection period, ranging from 0 to • No clear statement of archiving or how ac- 4 e-mails per day. e e-mails originated cess to journal content will be preserved in from 68 journals from at least 30 publishers perpetuity (if the journal is no longer pub- (in 11 cases, the publisher was not apparent; lished), such as in CLOCKSS or PubMed Table 1), and some journals sent multiple Central e-mails. e largest number of e-mails were received on a Tuesday (n = 19), followed by Finances: Monday (17), ursday and Friday (16 each), Wednesday (9), Saturday (7), and Sunday • Author charges are either unclear or are not (2). e most common publishers behind stated on the website. these e-mails were OMICS International • If posted, APCs are either extremely high (including SciTechnol and Insight Medical (several thousand dollars) or extremely low Publishing) with invitations to submit to 16 of (e.g., $60–$100) their journals, sometimes repeated. e next most common publishers were Open Access • Authors are required to pay a fee (oen ex- Publishers (OAP) with invitations to 5 of their cessive) in order for the paper to be rst sent journals and Science Research Publishing with for “review” 3 journals. OMICS International and OAP are considered predatory by both Beall and 101 PSB 64 (2) 2018
Cabell, and their e-mails were characteristic Dear Dr. eresa M Culley, of the checklist above. In particular, OMICS Good Morning…..! International was labeled by Beall as “the worst of the worst” (see also Stratford, 2012). I hope your morning is as bright as your smile! Eriksson and Helgesson (2017) also reported how OMICS International is particularly Well, in order to apply ISSN we are in need of one skilled at manipulating their reported “impact Research Article. Is it possible for you to support us with your eminent work? In fact, we are o ering factor,” and Stratford (2012) emphasized that best partial waiver for the rst 5 articles which are their websites are oen deceptive. received foremost.
Of the 86 e-mails that I received, only 9 Your trust in my e orts is the highest form of our motivation, I believe in you that your eminent (10.5%) were determined to be from legitimate manuscript brings out the best citation to our journals and the remaining 77 (89.5%) were Journal. from questionable sources. Of these, 57 (66.3%) e-mails originated from a predatory Predict to hear your optimistic response. journal or publisher as identi ed by Beall and/ Regards, or Cabell, and 21 (23.3%) e-mails contained many of the characteristics of predatory JOJ Horticulture & Arboriculture (JOJHA) journals (see checklist above), but did not appear on the Beall or Cabell lists. Even if multiple requests from the same publisher Dear Dr. eresa M. Culley, were excluded, only 11.8% of e-mails could Greetings from SciFed Journal of Astrophysics. be tracked to a legitimate journal with 88.2% originating from a known or presumed We just wanted to take a minute to wish you peace predatory journal or publisher (consisting of and prosperity. 64.7% listed on Beall and/or Cabell and 23.5% On behalf of SciFed Journal of Astrophysics, with characteristics of predatory journals). we would like to invite you to publish your recent research work for the second issue. During my review of these emails, the most SciFed Journal of Astrophysics Journal accepts articles in the form of Research Articles/Review common red ags that indicated a predatory Articles/Case Reports/Short Communications etc. journal were as follows: Please kindly share your recent research paper related 1. Inappropriate E-mail Presentation and to Journal of Astrophysics. Tone: Predatory journals oen have an We hope you will respond to this invite with a yes and international origin and as such, may spam will allow us to have one of the brilliant and most researchers with repeated e-mails that are gied minds of this century. replete with grammatical errors, odd word choices, e usive praise, and nonsensical We are looking forward to hearing from you. sentence structure. Noteworthy examples If you have any concerns, we will be glad to assist you. include (boldface as in the original message): Best Regards, George Philip Assistant Scienti c Editor SciFed Journal of Astrophysics
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2. Promises of a Quick Review and Acceptance: One e-mail I received from the International Dear Dr. T M Culley, Journal of Management and Economics Invention promised noti cation of acceptance Hope all is well at your end. Apologize for bothering in your busy schedule. within 2 to 3 days of submission and online We are delighted to inform you that, we are publication within 24 hours—despite the planning to release our Upcoming issue by publisher’s statement that “RAJ is committed the End of Current month and require your kind support to do this in due time. to peer review integrity and practices the highest standards of ethical publishing….” We are planning to get ISSN number to our journal Notably, the charge for U.S. authors was within 2months for which we have to publish more $100 per article, to be paid through PayPal. Research and Review articles as per the guidelines of Cope. Hence, we need your kind support, as e website for World Journal of Research we have gone through your pro le in online and and Review (https://www.wjrr.org/page/faq) very much delighted & surprised by your eminent mentions that it only takes 3 to 4 working articles which are quite interesting and informative. days for the review process and that online Where, you are an eminent author to our journal, publication is 1 to 2 days aer “registration”; we kindly request you to contribute your manuscript payment is by credit card or PayPal. to increase the scope of our journal or else you can suggest your friends/colleagues/students to submit their manuscripts towards our Journal. Kindly 3. Odd Editorial Oce Contacts: Another follow the below link for online submission common characteristic of predatory journals https://www.medwinpublishers. com/submit-manuscript.php is that e-mails to authors are commonly signed by an editorial assistant with either a If you are unable to submit article by the given single name followed by an abbreviation for timeline, kindly send us 2 Page Editorial/Mini the last name (Murray L or Amanda T) or two Review/Short communication/Opinion. Hope it would not consume your much valuable time. common English names put together (e.g., George Phillip, John Abraham, Isaac Brian). We are positive that this Journal will o er you an However, my favorite senders were “Monalisa,” enriching experience and hope to achieve great successful endeavors. the Assistant Managing Editor of the Journal of Plant Sciences and Agricultural Research, Kindly acknowledge this email receipt and “Scarlett Johansson,” the purported within 24 hours. journal coordinator of the new Journal of Environmental Research (not to be confused Await your reply. with Elsevier’s legitimate Environmental Kind Regards Research). Lori Elizabeth Assistant Managing Editor 4. Large Number of Editorial Board Members: Genomics & Gene erapy International Journal (GGTIJ) Predatory journals typically have a very long MedWin Publishers list of editors or editorial board members, Email: [email protected] oen from a scattering of di erent topical
If you wish to not to receive our e-mails, kindly areas (Shamseer et al., 2017). In some cases, unsubscribe the “editors” may turn out to be reputable scientists who have no idea that their name and information has been purloined
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(Gasparyan et al., 2015). For example, in 2017). Impact factors are calculated each 2016 I received an e-mail from Biological year by Clarivate Analytics (which took over Systems: Open Access, published by OMICS the calculations from omson Reuters), International, requesting a review article. and it can take at least two years for a journal e e-mail caught my attention because it to be selected to be included in their well- was very poorly written with grammatical regarded Journal Citation Report (JCR). mistakes, yet reportedly was from their However, omson Reuters originally never Editor-in-Chief—a name that I happened to trademarked the name “impact factor,” recognize as a researcher at a neighboring so a number of companies (such as Index university. When I contacted him, the Copernicus) have emerged to supply bogus person had no idea that his information and “impact factors” to predatory journals photograph had been surreptitiously used (Eriksson and Helgesson, 2017; Shamseer et in this manner, having been copied from his al., 2017). Furthermore, predatory journals university website. Several years ago, I politely may claim inclusion in an irrelevant indexing declined a request to join an editorial board of service that does not include any measure of a journal, mentioning that it was completely article quality, such as Google Scholar (Beall, outside my area of expertise and I was already 2016a). To check the authenticity of reported too busy as an editor-in-chief—to which the metrics, the group known as Stop Predatory journal asked me to reconsider, mentioning Journals provide a list of such indexing services that I did not need to do anything at all. In yet (https://predatoryjournals.com/metrics/). another example involving a sting operation, Some predatory journals also state falsely on a resume from a ctitious scientist named their websites that they are registered in the Anna O. Szust (based on the Polish word for Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), “a fraud”) was submitted to 360 journals to which can be easily checked (https://doaj.org). serve on their editorial board; 40 predatory Finally, Digital Object Identi ers (DOIs) are journals accepted her as an editor (some provided for materials regardless of their o ers were conditional on receiving payment) quality, so the fact that a journal provides and 4 journals appointed her as editor-in- DOIs for their articles should never be taken chief—with at least one mentioning that she as an external recognition of the importance would have “no responsibilities” (Sorokowski of that journal. et al., 2017). Finally, the ctional Dr. Lucas McGeorge mentioned earlier in the Star Wars One of my favorites is the following e-mail from sting operation was subsequently sent an the predatory journal American International unsolicited e-mail to serve on the editorial Journal of Contemporary Research. It was board of a di erent journal (Neuroskeptic, sent from “Emily Michael” and has even been 2017). updated to include that the journal is indexed in Cabell’s. It is certainly included there—but 5. Misleading Statements of Importance and on their Blacklist. e underlined and bold- False Impact Factors: Predatory journals faced portions are as in the original e-mail. sometimes provide a fake impact factor to misrepresent their importance (Beall, 2016b; Gasparyan et al., 2015; Beninger et al., 2016; Eriksson and Helgesson, 2017; Hunziker,
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Call for Papers American International Journal of Contemporary Research ISSN 2162-139X (Print), ISSN 2162-142X (Online) DOI: 10.30845/aijcr
American International Journal of Contemporary Research (AIJCR) is an open access, peer-reviewed and refereed multidisciplinary journal published by Center for Promoting Ideas (CPI), USA. e main objective of AIJCR is to provide an intellectual platform for the research community. AIJCR aims to promote contemporary research in business, humanities, social science, science and technology and become the leading journal in the world.
e journal publishes research papers in three broad speci c elds as follows:
Business and Economics Management, marketing, nance, economics, banking, accounting, human resources management, international business, hotel and tourism, entrepreneurship development, business ethics, development studies and so on.
Humanities and Social Science Anthropology, communication studies, corporate governance, criminology, cross-cultural studies, demography, education, ethics, geography, history, industrial relations, information science, international relations, law, linguistics, library science, media studies, methodology, philosophy, political science, population Studies, psychology, public administration, sociology, social welfare, linguistics, literature, paralegal, performing arts (music, theatre & dance), religious studies, visual arts, women studies.
Science and Technology Astronomy and astrophysics, Chemistry, Earth and atmospheric sciences, Physics, Biology in general, Agriculture, Biophysics and biochemistry, Botany, Environmental Science, Forestry, Genetics, Horticulture, Husbandry, Neuroscience, Zoology, Computer science, Engineering, Robotics and Automation, Materials science, Mathematics, Mechanics, Statistics, Health Care & Public Health, Nutrition and Food Science, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and so on.
e journal is published both in print and online versions. AIJCR publishes original papers, review papers, conceptual framework, analytical and simulation models, case studies, empirical research, technical notes, and book reviews.
AIJCR is indexed with and included in Cabell’s, EBSCO, Ulrich’s , IndexCopernicus International, and Gale. Moreover the journal is under the indexing process with ISI, ERIC, ProQuest, Scopus, DOAJ and Econlit.
DOI® number Each paper published in American International Journal of Contemporary Research is assigned a DOI® number. e DOI of this journal is 10.30845/aijcr.
AIJCR is inviting papers for Vol. 8 No. 2 which is scheduled to be published on June 30, 2018. Last date of submission: June 20, 2018. However, an early submission will get preference in case of review and publication process.
Send your manuscript to the editor at [email protected]
For more information, visit the ocial website of the journal www.aijcrnet.com
With thanks, Dr. Andrew Lessard
e Chief Editor American International Journal of Contemporary Research Contact: [email protected] 105 PSB 64 (2) 2018
6. Invitations to Submit to Irrelevant Journals: English journals (Regier, 2018). Although most journals e-mailing to solicit a manuscript were usually of some relevance to As emphasized here, authors should avoid my own research as a botanist, there was also submitting their manuscripts to these a subset of highly irrelevant journals. ese illegitimate journals, but there are also other included the SciFed Journal of Astrophysics implications of the proliferation of predatory (which sent three identical requests and journals. First, when authors are searching another this May, asking why they have not for relevant citations to include in their own heard back from me), Advances in Automobile manuscripts, they now must decide which Engineering, and Journal of Stem Cells and articles are valid to cite and which to ignore Regenerative erapy, to name a few. Some (Beall, 2016a); it is not enough to always of these journals also sent insistent, follow-up simply trust in the reputation of the journal e-mail solicitations, oen directly referring to itself. In addition, fake literature will continue one of my own unrelated publications by title. to in ltrate academia as students and others unknowingly reference illegitimate articles found on the internet. ird, the onus now WHAT TO DO NEXT falls upon academic search committees to carefully vet the curriculum vitae of their e appearance of new predatory journals will job applicants to avoid applicants who pad undoubtedly continue as long as researchers their publication record with articles in low- remain ambivalent, ignorant, or accepting of quality, predatory journals (Kolata, 2017). this publishing trend. As one of their main Finally, the scienti c community still needs targets, junior scientists such as graduate to consider the role of paid editing services students writing their rst paper need to be for non-English speaking authors (Gasparyan especially wary of predatory journals. Given et al., 2015). In the end, authors, reviewers, that I, as a full professor with over 18 years and editors must remain vigilant about the of publishing articles, received so many predatory journals and publishers. is is requests from predatory journals, it would be the only way that we can thwart persons and interesting to determine if it might di er for companies who wish to devalue science for graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, their own personal pro t. and junior tenure track faculty members in the United States. Authors in countries with limited nancial resources may also be LITERATURE CITED attracted to these journals because the cost Anderson, R. 2017. Cabell’s new predatory jour- is oen much lower than legitimate journals. nal blacklist: A review. The Scholarly Kitchen. For example, a review of articles published in Available at: https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet. predatory journals from 2010–2014 revealed org/2017/07/25/cabells-new-predatory-jour- that 75% of the authors were from Africa or nal-blacklist-review/ [accessed May 29, 2018]. Asia (Shen and Björk, 2015). However, it is important to remember that legitimate, open Barroga, E. 2015. Predatory publishing practices access journals from these regions of the world corrode the credibility of science. Journal of Ko- can also be improperly labeled as “predatory,” rean Medical Science 30: 1535-1536. so lists such as those above should be used Beall, J. 2012. Predatory publishers are corrupting with caution with non-Western and non- open access. Nature 489: 179. 106 PSB 64 (2) 2018
Beall, J. 2016a. Dangerous predatory publishers Kolata, G. 2017. Many academics are eager threaten medical research. Journal of Korean Med- to publish in worthless journals. e New York ical Science 31: 1511-1513. Times Oct. 30. Available at: https://www.nytimes. com/2017/10/30/science/predatory-journals-aca- Beall, J. 2016b. Best practices for scholarly au- demics.html [accessed May 29, 2018]. thors in the age of predatory journals. Annals of e Royal College of Surgeons of England 98: 77- Laine C. and M.A. Winker. 2017. Identifying 79. predatory or pseudo-journals. World Associa- tion of Medical Editors. Available at: http://www. Beall, J. 2017. What I learned from predatory wame.org/News/Details/18 [accessed May 29, publishers. Biochemia Medica 27(2): 273-278. 2018].
Beninger, P.G., J. Beall, and S.E. Shumway. 2016. Neuroskeptic. 2017. Predatory journals hit by ‘Star Debasing the currency of science: The growing Wars’ Sting. Discover. Available at: http://blogs. menace of predatory open access journals. Journal discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/2017/07/22/ of Shell sh Research 35: 1-5. predatory-journals-star-wars-sting/#.Wv4f_S_ Gx0t [accessed May 29, 2018]. Chawla, D.S. 2018. The undercover academic keeping tabs on ‘predatory’ publishing. Nature Regier, R. 2018. The institutionalized racism of 555: 422-423. scholarly publishing. A Way of Happening: a Re- search Library Blog. Available at: https://away- Committee on Publication Ethics – COPE. ofhappening.wordpress.com/2018/06/09/the-in- 2014. Principles of transparency and best prac- stitutionalized-racism-of-scholarly-publishing/ tice in scholarly publishing. Version 2. Available [accessed June 18, 2018] at: https://oaspa.org/principles-of-transparen- cy-and-best-practice-in-scholarly-publishing/ Rydholm, A. 2017. Beware of predatory journals. [accessed May 29, 2018]. Acta Orthopaedica 88(6): 576.
Council of Science Editors. 2018. Predatory or Shamseer L., S. Moher, O. Maduekwe, L. Turn- deceptive publishers – recommendations for er, C. Barbour, R. Burch, J. Clark, J. Galipeau, J. caution. Available at: https://www.councilscien- Roberts, and E.J. Shea. 2017. Potential predato- ceeditors.org/resource-library/editorial-policies/ ry and legitimate biomedical journals: Can you cse-policies/approved-by-the-cse-board-of-direc- tell the difference? A cross-sectional comparison. tors/predatory-deceptive-publishers-recommen- BMC Medicine 15: 28. dations-caution/ [accessed June 16, 2018] Shen C. and B.-C. Björk. 2015. ‘Predatory’ open Eriksson, S. and G. Helgesson. 2017. The false access: A longitudinal study of article volumes academy: predatory publishing in science and and market characteristics. BMC Medicine 13: 230. bioethics. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 20: 163-170. Sorokowski P., E. Kulczycki, A. Sorokowska, and K. Pisanski. 2017. Predatory journals recruit fake Gasparyan A.Y., M. Yessirkepov, S.N. Diyano- editor. Nature 543: 481-483. va, and G.D. Kitas. 2015). Publishing ethics and predatory practices: A dilemma for all stakehold- Stratford, M. 2012. ‘Predatory’ online journals ers of science communication. Journal of Korean lure scholars who are eager to publish. e Chron- Medical Science 30: 1010-1016. icle of Higher Education, March 4, available at: https://www.chronicle.com/article/Predatory-On- Hunziker, R. 2017. Avoiding predatory publishers line-Journals/131047 [accessed May 29, 2018]. in the post-Beall world: Tips for writers and edi- tors. AMWA Journal 32: 113-115. 107 PSB 64 (2) 2018
Stromberg, J. 2014a. “Get Me Off Your F------Email List” is an actual science paper accepted by a journal. Vox. Available at: https://www.vox. com/2014/11/21/7259207/scientific-paper-scam [accessed May 29, 2018].
Stromberg, J. 2014b. A reporter published a fake study to expose how terrible some scientific jour- nals are. Vox. Available at: https://www.vox. com/2014/4/24/5647106/a-reporter-published- a-fake-study-to-expose-how-terrible-some [ac- cessed May 29, 2018].
Tin, L., B. Ivana, B. Biljana, I. B. Ljubica, M. Dragan, and S. Dušan. 2014. Predatory and fake scientific journals/publishers – a global outbreak with rising trend: A review. Geographica Pannon- ica 18: 69-81.
Table 1. Journals that sent 68 e-mails to the author inviting journal submissions over a 103-day period. Shown for each journal is the publisher, sender of the e-mail invitation (Sender), and the following characteristics for each e-mail: tting much of the criteria in the checklist above (Classic example), containing multiple grammar and spelling mistakes (Mistakes), containing one or more statements of e usive praise (E usive praise), the sender listed as a single name or a combination of common American or British names (Simple sender name), whether the e-mail is from a jour- nal from an unrelated eld (Non-relevant eld), and the number of times an e-mail was received (N). Journals are arranged by publisher in alphabetical order and grouped according to whether they are considered predatory by Beall, Cabell, both Beall and Cabell, or are not listed by either but contain characteristics of predatory entities, and legitimate journals.
108 PSB 64 (2) 2018 - - Sender Komal Gupta (Journal Coordina (Journal Gupta Komal A. Lesnevskyi, M.D. (Senior Edi - A. Lesnevskyi, M.D. John Abraham (Editorial Oce) (Editorial Abraham John Oce) (Editorial Abraham John Oce) (Editorial Abraham John Scienti c (Assistant Philip George Editor) tor) Manager) (Asst.Editorial Davis tor) John Abraham (Editorial Oce) (Editorial Abraham John John Abraham (Editorial Oce) (Editorial Abraham John Spandana. M (Assistant Managing Managing M (Assistant Spandana. Editor ) Oce) (Editorial Henry Nicholas Oce) (Editorial Henry Nicholas Prof. Seyed Gh. Etemad (CEO) Seyed Etemad Gh. Prof. oce) A (Editorial Christopher Monalisa (Assistant Managing Managing (Assistant Monalisa Editor) - Manag Lori Elizabeth (Assistant Editor) ing Prof. Seyed Gh. Etemad (CEO) Seyed Etemad Gh. Prof. Scarlett Johansson (Journal Coor (Journal Johansson Scarlett dinator) Professor Yokoyama Kenji (Editor) Kenji Yokoyama Professor
Publisher SciTechnol (OMICS) SciTechnol Unknown Open Access Pub (OAP) Pub Open Access (OAP) Pub Open Access Si Desk Group Si Open Access Pub (OAP) Pub Open Access Open Access Pub (OAP) Pub Open Access Gratis Open Access Publisher Open Access Gratis Publisher Open Access Gratis Elyns Publishing Group Publishing Elyns ClinMed Avestia Publishing, International International Publishing, Avestia Inc. ASET Insight Medical Publishing (OMICS) Publishing Medical Insight Publishers MedWin Avestia Publishing, International International Publishing, Avestia Inc. ASET Insight Medical Publishing (OMICS) Publishing Medical Insight Herald Scholarly Open Access Scholarly Herald Lynch Emma
- - - - - Journal Name Journal Journal of Soil Science and Plant Soil Plant Science of and Journal Health Journal of Preventive Medicine Medicine Preventive of Journal and Care Journal of Alternative Comple Alternative of Journal Unknown Name Unknown Journal of Alternative Medicine Medicine Alternative of Journal Body Mind Practicesand ology Current Opinion in Gynecology Opinion Current Obstetrics and and Pharmaceutics of Journal erapeutics Journal of Molecular Biology and Biology and Molecular of Journal Techniques International Archives of Clinical of Archives International Pharmacology Journal of Biomedical Engineering Engineering Biomedical of Journal Biosciences and Journal of Advances in Plant Bi in Plant Advances of Journal cultural Research cultural Inter & Gene erapy Genomics Journal national Journal of Plant Sciences and Agri Sciences and of Plant Journal Journal of Environmental Re Environmental of Journal search mentary & Integrative Medicine mentary & Integrative 1 1 1 1 1 1 Research of Journal 1 British (OMICS) Publishing Medical Insight N X 1 Review Medicine Internal X 2 Biomarkers Fertility of Journal (OAP) Pub Open Access X 1 X 1 X 1 Biofuel to Biomass of Journal vant eld vant Non-rele- XX X X 2 1 Journal e X X 1 X X name sender Simple Simple
X X X 1 praise E usive E usive XX X X X X 1 X X Mistakes X X X! X X 3 Astrophysics of Journal SciFed Federation Scienti c XX XX X X X X X 1 X X X! X X 2 X XXXX Classic example Listed Beall by Only
109 PSB 64 (2) 2018 - - Dr. Renato Alencar Renato Dr. Ananda T (Journal Coordinator) T (Journal Ananda - Assis (Editorial Wilson Annabel tant) Associate Managing Editor Managing Associate Jenny Brown (Managing Editor) (Managing Brown Jenny - Coordina (Journal Kalyan Shiba tor) Anna Watson (Journal Coordina (Journal Watson Anna tor) Stella Maris (Journal Coordinator) (Journal Maris Stella Managing Editor Managing Glory Har (Editorial Coordinator) (Editorial Glory Har - Coordi (Journal Nicole Kristen nator) coordinator) Alena S. (Journal Prof. Kadriye Caglayan (Editor) Caglayan Kadriye Prof. Regina Lawsol Dr. Jorge J. Santiago-Aviles (Chief Santiago-Aviles J. Jorge Dr. Editor) Evylene Coor (Editorial Williams Cathy dinator) Geneva McNicholl, on behalf of behalf of on GenevaMcNicholl, Editor-in-Chief Dr. J. Sabrina Mims-Cox ( e ( e Mims-Cox Sabrina J. Dr. Chief Editor) Executive Editor Executive Naresh B (Editorial Assistant ) Assistant B (Editorial Naresh Brian Isaac Dr. Clayton Kennedy Clayton Dr. - Si Desk Group Si Series Communications SciTechnol (OMICS) SciTechnol SciTechnol (OMICS) SciTechnol SciTechnol (OMICS) SciTechnol OMICS OMICS OMICS OMICS OMICS OMICS OMICS Net Journals Net MedCrave Group MedCrave Center for Promoting Ideas (CPI) Ideas Promoting for Center Center for Global Research Develop Global Research for Center Bio Accent Bio Publishers Gavin American Research Institute for Policy Policy for Institute Research American Development Center for Promoting Ideas (CPI) Ideas Promoting for Center American Research Institute for Policy Policy for Institute Research American Development ARC TathQeef Scienti c Publishing Scienti c TathQeef Team IJEAS ment ------Journal of Biochemistry Bio of and Journal Earth SciencesSDRP & Environ Studies mental technology VEGETOS: An International Jour International An VEGETOS: Research Plant nal of thology Journal of Plant Physiology & Pa Physiology Plant of Journal Journal of Biodiversity Manage Biodiversity of Journal & Forestry ment ment Advances in Automobile Engi in Automobile Advances - Develop and Research of Journal neering Research & Reviews: Journal of of & Reviews:Research Journal Botanical Sciences tionary Biology International Journal of Human of Journal International Journal of Bioanalysis & Biomed Bioanalysis of Journal icine Ecology Toxicology of and Journal & Evolu Phylogenetics of Journal Advances in Crop Science and Science and in Crop Advances Technology Net Journal of Agricultural Sci Agricultural - of Journal Net ence Forestry Research and Engineer and Research Forestry Journal International ing: International Journal of Applied Applied of Journal International Technology Science and International Journal of Education Education of Journal International Developments Human and International Journal Environ Journal International Science & Agricultural mental - Earth Environmen of and Journal tal Sciences American International Journal of of Journal International American Biology ities and Social and ities Science Journal of Geography and Earth and Geography of Journal Sciences International Journal of Research Research of Journal International Science in Environmental International Multidisciplinary Multidisciplinary International Journal Research 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 3 1 Genomics Investigative of Journal Group MedCrave 1 XX 1 1 X 1 X 1 X 4 X 1 X 1 X X X 1 X X 1 X X 1 x X X X XXX XXX X Listed Cabell by Only Listed Both Beall by Cabell and X XXXX XX XXX X X X X 1 XXX XXXX X X XX
110 PSB 64 (2) 2018 - - - - Editorial Oce Editorial Assistant) (Editorial Katherine Manager Journal Sophia Mathis Sophia Jennifer Brown (Associate Manag (Associate Brown Jennifer Ms. DENG Jing (Joy) (Editorial (Editorial (Joy) Jing Ms. DENG Assistant) PhD A. Santiago-Blay, Jorge Ms. Jiaojiao Yao (Alice) (Editorial (Alice) (Editorial Yao Jiaojiao Ms. Assistant) Prof. Adrián Llerena (Edi Llerena Adrián Prof. Victor Daniel Victor - Coordi (Journal Hanley Kristin nator) Editor) ing Manag (Associate Reuben Mark Editor) ing Team WJRR Journal Emily Watson (Editorial Assistant) (Editorial Watson Emily tor-in-Chief) (Edi - Ph.D. Song Hongjun Zhang tor-in-Chief) Xueli and Editor) (Managing Dr. Cheng Bi (Managing Editor) (Managing Bi Cheng Dr. Editorial Oce Editorial Ed (Managing Ms. LIU Mengzhu itor) Murray L Murray Editor) N (Managing Chandu Coordinator) (Journal Brown John - Man (Programme Moreganaraj ager) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Self-published Scienti c Research Publishing Research Scienti c Scienti c Research Publishing Research Scienti c Bentham ScienceBentham Symbiosis Unknown Unknown Unknown Heighten Science Publications Corpo - Science Publications Heighten ZygoScient Research Insights, Inc. Insights, Research ZygoScient Higher Education Press and Springer and Press Education Higher MDPI AIMS Press Scienti c Research Publishing Research Scienti c Science PC ration OMICS OMICS Global Science and Technology Forum Technology Global Science and ------Environ of Journal International Letters in Health and Biological Biological and in Health Letters Sciences Manage of Journal International Invention Economics and ment mental Monitoring and Analysis and Monitoring mental ogy: Journal Open Access Journal of Pharmaceutical Chem Pharmaceutical of Journal Biology and Marine of Journal Research Aquatic American Journal of Plant Scienc Plant of Journal American es Advances in Bioscience and Bio and in Bioscience Advances technology Current Pharmacogenomics & Pharmacogenomics Current Medicine Personalized Agricultural Research & Technol Research Agricultural International Journal of Pharma of Journal International covigilance istry & Chemical Science Sciences and Aquatic of Journal Oceanography and Research of Journal World Review topathology Journal of CellsRegen and Stem erapy erative American Journal of Bioscience Bioscience of Journal American Bioengineering and Journal of Pollution Geneticsand Plant of Journal Open Access Breeding: Journal of Plant Science and Phy Science and Plant of Journal 6th Annual International Confer International 6th Annual Chemical En - Chemistry, on ence gineering & Chemical Process 1 Biology of Excitement e Life: 1 1 1 1 in Biology Frontiers 1 Forests 1 AIMS Genetics 1 Science Natural 2 2 1 X 1 XX 1 2 X 2 X 1 X 1 X X 1 XX X X 2 Review 1 Transylvanian X X 1 X X 1 X X X 1 X XX X X XXX X XXXX XX X X X X X 1 XXXX X! X X! Legitimate Journals Presumed Predatory Presumed
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