A topic in Academic standards and scholarly / scientific values
Predatory journals
Predatory journals present as research journals, and invite authors to submit work for publication. They charge fees (article processing charges, APC – some also add a charge for the unique DOI {digital object identifier}) for publication. It is reasonable for a journal that makes work open access (and so does not charge readers) to charge a fee, but the fees may be excessive for the service provided.
The nature of predatory journals
As publication may be critical to scholars being appointed to academic posts, to obtaining tenure (i.e., permanent employment), to getting promotion, and so forth, academics are usually highly motivated to getting their work published.
Ideally, academics want their work published in the most noticed journals, and welcome critical review of their work to both help them improve it, and to avoid publication of sub-standard work under their name. However, the conditions of academic employment often mean some academics feel that speed of publication, and number of publications, are more important than publication quality.
This creates an environment for setting up journals which are primarily a means to make money for their owners, by seeking to publish articles for an APC, and which offer speedy publication for a fee. These journals may claim to offer peer- and editorial review, but in practice reject very few (if any) submissions, and do not robustly test manuscript quality in peer review and then defer publication until articles are fully revised in accord with expert feedback. Whilst some well-intentioned, newly-established journals are unable to attract sufficiently qualified experts as peer reviewers even though they aspire to quality peer review, predatory journals deliberately prioritise income over article quality.
[I am referring here to research journals. Not all periodicals with a focus on an academic field are intended as research journals: professional magazines and practitioner journals have a different rationale and editorial approach and peer-review is not always seen as necessary in reaching publishing decisions in these types of outlets. (Read more about the distinction between 'Research journals and practitioner journals'.)]
(Read about a journal that is certainly 'Not a leading international journal…')
Some characteristics of predatory journals
The following features should make one suspicious of invitations to publish with a journal – especially when several of these features are present (see, for example, 'Knocking off a quick pharmaceutical Intervention').
Direct and often dishonest advertising
Predatory journals often advertise their services by direct mailings to scholars, sometimes claiming to be impressed by the scholar's existing publications (which it is unlikely they have read, rather than just identified from a web-search) and their expertise in the field of the journal. Often the people sending these mailings are either unable to, or cannot be bothered to, determine whether the scholar contacted even works in the field the journal is meant to located in. This gives a good clue as to the scholarly care taken over academic matters by the editorial team.
For example, read 'Alternative Conceptions, the Learning of Chemistry, and the Journal of Pharmacognosy and Natural Products'
Direct approaches often name you, and sometimes refer to something you have already published. They may tell you how you are an expert in the field, and claim to have read your work. That this is often a lie is clear when they invite you to contribute to a journal which has no relation to your areas of expertise.
False citations indices
These journals often boast inflated citation indices, offer publication in the next issue (perhaps only a week or two away from publication – clearly insufficient to ensure quality peer review and article revision), and they may invite a wide range of types of article, including short pieces that could quickly be put together (just about anything short of your shopping list).
Genuine citation indices are provided by international organisations that calculate the average number of citations each paper in a journal receives form other outlets in their database. Some predatory journals cite decent or good citation indices – that are not actually based on citations at all but other arbitrary data (a bit like telling someone your bank account number, but claiming that was your bank balance!)
Misleading editorial affiliations
Such journals may seek to attract well known scholars as editorial board members to boost their credibility, but again without due diligence to see if the person being contacted actually works in the area of the journal.
For example, read 'The Editorial Board of Medical Imaging Process & Technology: A response to an invitation to join an editorial board for a medical imaging journal'
For example, read 'The application of Cronbach's alpha in Mechatronical Engineering'
Often such journals have serious academics named as editors or board members, but the actual editorial work is carried out by office staff who (it seems) often have no qualifications in the subject of the journal.
Incompetent (or non-existent) peer review
Peer review is the process by which serious research journals evaluate submissions to decide which to publish. The process is as much about looking how submission that will be published can be improved as selecting/rejecting manuscripts. Whilst as an author it is always challenging when peer reviewers find serious flaws in one's work, the process, albeit imperfect, is essential to ensure the quality and trustworthiness of published research.
Predatory journals have little concern for research quality, as their prime imperative is maximising the number of papers published as each beings in a fee.
Published work in predatory journals is often of a very poor standards – often being incompetence, incoherent, and containing basic errors. Of course, if good work is submitted, good work will be published – but substandard work will often also be published.
Whether these journals actually carry out peer review, or simply claim to, often there is clearly no substantive peer review by experts in the field of the paper.
See, for example, The mystery of the disappearing authors
Speedy publication
All journals are under pressure to compete to publish quickly.
However, a serious research journal will take time to
- check submissions are on scope and include sufficient detail for prper evaluation in peer review
- identify exert reviewers able to take on the evaluation, and give them time to do it
- ask authors to address concerns and issues raised by reviewers, and given them a reasonable time to do the work needed
- carefully check revisions against the requested changes, refering back to the expert reviewers where necessary
before moving to a decision that a manuscript is ready for publication.
Occasionally serious journals receive work that is good enough to publish as is, or with very modest changes that can be completed very quickly. These cases are exceptions. Some work goes through many recycles of evaluation and revisions before it is ready to publish.
So whilst, all other things being equal (i.e., they seldom are!), a short timescale from submission to acceptance to publication is to be desired, one should be VERY suspicious of journals where nearly all the work has been accepted within a couple of weeks (or even a few days) of submission.
An email from 'Scinzer Scientific Publications' (07/10/2016) told me that they had "our great honor to invite you for submitting your papers to Scinzer Journals" – they listed 'Scinzer Journal of Accounting and Management', '… of Accounting and Management ', '…of Engineering', '…of Humanities', and '…of Medical [sic]' – offering "Fast track paper publication (3-10 Days)".
Fast track publication sounds good – but probably means buying the chance to place your work in a dodgy journal
For example, read 'Publish at speed, recant at leisure'
For example, read 'Alternative Conceptions, the Learning of Chemistry, and the Journal of Pharmacognosy and Natural Products'
Predatory journals will often ask potential authors to send them an article within a few days (suggesting they either do not expect anything of quality, or their staff are very ignorant of how long it takes to produce serious academic work), and sometimes offer reduced/waived fees for work submitted almost immediately.
Promiscuous (and short) article types
Serious research studies in education are usually substantive pieces of work. Most research journals publish a limited range of types of article – most commonly research reports, reviews of research, and theoretical papers.
Because predatory journals are interested in publishing as many articles as possible (as each brings in a fee) they will often encourage and accept very short pieces (such as research papers lacking many important details of the work) and may incite a range of other types of publication such as letters to the editor, short notes and communications, case reports, book reviews … (one is tempted to add shopping lists…)
Whilst many serious publications will sometimes publish letters to the editor – they do not charge the author for the privilege!
Laxity in scope
Most research journals publish in a particular research field and have a 'scope' which is identified on the website. A journal of science education will publish research in science education – even if there is sometimes some subjectivity in what this means at the edges (would it count computer science education, some aspect of technology education?) Submissions are often rejected because they are not on topic. (When I was editor of a chemistry education journal I often got manuscripts about chemistry but which had no educational research reported in them).
A predatory journal may be very flexible in what it publishes as each rejected paper is a lost fee. (So, for example, one predatory chemistry journal published a research report about medical students learning to use ultrasound equipment.)
Journals may have a very wide 'scope' – in some case to the extent they invite work from any discipline!
Some of the publishers of predatory journals offer a spread of journals covering a wide range of broad fields (the Taber Journal of Life Sciences, the Taber Journal of Engineering, the Taber Journal of Social Science, the Taber Journal of Arts and Culture, the Taber Hybrid Journal of Interdisciplinary, Trans-disciplinary, Cross-disciplinary, Non-disciplinary and Miscellaneous Studies, etc.), such that if you send them work (or perhaps your shopping list), and are prepared to pay for publication, they will find a home for your work!
Read articles related to predatory journals
