+ present: A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING AND DEFENDING AGAINST Predatory Publishing IF YOU’RE A RESEARCHER IN HIGHER EDUCATION, ESPECIALLY A GRADUATE STUDENT, POSTDOC, OR AN UNTENURED FACULTY MEMBER, YOU PROBABLY FEEL A LOT OF PRESSURE TO PUBLISH ORIGINAL, PEER-REVIEWED RESEARCH. PREDATORY JOURNALS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS. PREDATORY PUBLISHING is the practice of soliciting IN 2017 research manuscripts to publish for profit while bypassing peer review and editorial standards. Predatory publishers appear genuine, often emailing authors invitations to submit articles. They quickly accept manuscripts The number and charge the author fees, but unlike of predatory legitimate open-access publishers who sometimes charge fees, predatory journals publishers don’t provide proper peer review and has risen appropriate editorial oversight. In fact, exponentially scammers in recent years1 Make false claims of peer review, • IN 2015 indexing, and archiving Falsify journal ranking and impact factors • Don’t follow standard policies for high IN 2011 • quality scholarly publishing, such as those outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Council of Science Editors (CSE), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME). Don’t meet standards for professional All a predatory • In April 2019 the Federal Trade 2 publisher needs to scientific publications. Commission ruled that OMICS Sometimes list author names, editors, get started is a • International, a large publishing computer, a website, scientists, and their aliations on their company from India, pay fifty and a journal title. editorial pages without permission million dollars to authors and Buy-out reputable journals, then continue • others the company deceived. publication under a name that was OMICS publishes about 700 3 previously considered legitimate. journals and sponsors hundreds of annual vanity conferences and 1 Gupta, Kailash. 2015. “Opinion: Pay-to-Play Publishing, Online scientific journals are sacrificing the quality of research articles to make a buck.” Sep 3, 2015. The Scientist. workshops using predatory and Laine, Christine and Margaret A. Winker. 2017. “Identifying predatory or pseudo-journals.” Biochemia Medica. 2 Richtig, G., M. Berger, B. Lange-Asschenfeldt, W. Aberer, and E. Richtig. 2018. ‘’Problems and challenges of predatory journals.’ Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology. 3 Langdorf, Mark. 4 2018. “Predatory publisher attempts to compromise WestJEM’s integrity.” West J Emerging Medicine. 4 Brainard, Jerey. 2019. “US Judge rules deceptive publisher practices. should pay $50 million in damages.” Science. and Masic, Izet. 2017. “Predatory Publishing – Experience with OMICS International.” Med Arch. • An invitation to publish comes in an email, sometimes with flowery language, misspellings, and strange references Warning • Contact email addresses are non-professional/non-journal aliated • Publisher’s website contains spelling and grammatical errors. Signs Images are distorted or fuzzy, misleading, and/or unauthorized • Website’s homepage language targets authors of a predatory • Website promotes the purported Index Copernicus Value • Poor or no description of the manuscript handling process publication • Manuscripts submitted through email rather than a web management system • Rapid publication promised with ineective or no peer review • No retraction policy • Limited or no information on content’s digitally preservation • Initially, the journal charges authors a low article processing or publication fee (for example, below $150), but charges anywhere from $500 to $3,000 to publish once an article is accepted • A journal claiming to be open access fails to mention copyright • Publication’s scope of interest includes non-biomedical subjects alongside biomedical topics Best Practices IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN PUBLISHING IF YOU’RE A PEER REVIEWER OR EDITOR • Check some basic reference lists to see if a • Thoroughly investigate any request to be a journal is either predatory or legitimate, such reviewer or editor of a journal as doaj.org, plos.org, predatoryjournals.com, • Check the credentials of other reviewers and cabells.com, thinkchecksubmit.org, and editors, and don’t be afraid to contact them Medline/Publine indexing. Although these and ask questions lists are not extensive, they can serve as • Be suspicious of the same issues authors valuable reference points to determine a face, including the pressure to respond to journal’s legitimacy. email solicitation • Don’t respond to a predatory journal’s email • Avoid journals that don’t carefully explain in • Check for a legitimate website. advance your role and responsibilities in • Select journals of interest early in the writing. Ask about the volume of work and research process and consult with mentors required response time. and trusted colleagues • Question journals that minimize the • Educate your co-authors so they can also importance of your review and don’t respond investigate suspicious journals to questions • Check your own manuscript references for • Investigate journals with multiple predatory journal articles “editors-in-chief” • Carefully review any legal matters with university counsel, such as written agreements, copyrights, usage limits, etc. • If you’re a graduate student, protect your It’s often not easy or possible to thesis or dissertation through an embargo retrieve a manuscript or submission fees once they are submitted to a predatory journal. It’s worth taking a few extra ULTIMATELY, THE measures to ensure that your work is published ethically for your BEST DEFENSE IS A benefit as well as that of your STRONG OFFENSE. scientific or academic community..