Predatory Publishing: What Is It and Why You Should Care?
Julie H. Schiavo MLIS, AHIP
Assistant Director for Dental Library Services
If you have ever received an email requesting you to submit research to a journal that didn't look quite right, chances are you have been contacted by a predatory publisher. Predatory publishers are publishers who “actively solicit manuscripts and charge publication fees without providing robust peer review and editorial services.” These publishers use the open access publishing model to generate large profits by publishing any and all submissions without any regard to the soundness of the science, quality of the manuscript, or even the content of the manuscript. This lack of rigorous, or in many cases any, peer review has resulted in a large amount of false, misleading, or dangerous “scientific” articles making their way into the public sphere, spreading distrust and harmful beliefs among patients. It is important to note that not all open access journals are predatory; there are some very high-quality open access journals that are highly recommended for publications.
Predatory publishers promise researchers much more than they deliver. A publisher may promise researchers a quick way to a peer reviewed publication in a legitimate journal with easy access due to open access. In reality, the researcher will find the article is not peer reviewed nor indexed in well-known databases making it nearly impossible for other researchers to find. In addition, the author, especially early career authors, may find their reputation in jeopardy. If the article has errors or problems that would normally be caught in peer review, they may get a reputation of being a poor researcher. Many predatory publishers will not actually publish the journals they advertise leaving the author without rights to their article and no way to share their research.
Predatory journals and publishers are designed to deceive so if you are considering publishing in a journal that you are not familiar with, do a little research before you send them your work:
- Check the title of the journal. Many predatory journals will have similar titles to legitimate journals.
- Look out for unusual names, unprofessional signatures, spelling mistakes, or overly solicitous language in emails or journal homepages.
- Read several of the articles published by the journal to determine the quality of the research they publish. Also be on the lookout for journals that do not hold to accepted ethical standards such as IRB approvals.
- Take a look at the journal's editorial board. Do the people listed as editors claim the honor on their CVs? One study found several journal “editors” who did not know nor had they agreed to be editors for a journal.
- Verify that the journal is indexed in the databases they claim to be indexed. Often, the publisher will list “indexes” that do not vet their content. Any article can be available through Google Scholar.
- Make sure the journal is indexed in MEDLINE (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals/). Not everything discoverable through PubMed is the best quality research but everything in MEDLINE has been vetted by librarians at the National Library of Medicine.
- Verify the journal's impact factor through Journal Citation Reports which is available through the library (https://www.lsuhsc.edu/library/databases/jcr.aspx). Often, there will be a fake impact factor listed or there will be other metrics that are not generally accepted as valid.
- Check to see if the journal or publisher is listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (https://doaj.org/).
The LSUHSC-NO librarians are always available to help you. We have many ways to determine the legitimacy of a journal and to find an appropriate place to publish your research.