Predatory Publications
What are they?
Predatory or rogue journals are open access publications which publish scholarly work without engaging in proper scholarly publishing practices. Researchers and academics must be aware and avoid publishing in these publications or journals.
The NRF has issued a statement on predatory journals to ensure that researchers and students adhere to the principles of research integrity and are aware of predatory journals and deceptive publishers. The NRF warns its stakeholder communities to avoid publishing in journals that do not have a rigorous peer review system or scholarly publishing practices.
So, how do you identify or spot predatory journals?
Beall’s list of potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access journals, which provided a source of possible predatory journals and publishers, was removed from the internet but can be accessed at: https://beallslist.net/ . The Stop Predatory Journals website has rebuilt and resurrected the work of Beall’s list and offers it as a crowd sourced initiative. The website provides lists of predatory journals and deceptive publishers. It also offers these ten characteristics of predatory journals and deceptive publishers which will help you to identify them:
- Charging exorbitant rates for publication of articles in conjunction with a lack of peer-review or editorial oversight.
- Notifying authors of fees only after acceptance.
- Targeting scholars through mass-email spamming in attempts to get them to publish or serve on editorial boards.
- Quick acceptance of low-quality papers.
- Listing scholars as members of editorial boards without their permission or not allowing them to resign.
- Listing fake scholars as members of editorial boards or authors.
- Copying the visual design and language of legitimate, established journals
- Fraudulent or improper use of ISSNs.
- Giving false information about the location of the publishing operation.
- Fake, non-existent, or misrepresented impact factors.
The Cabell’s Blacklist of Journal titles database analyses over 60 behavioural indicators to keep the community aware of the growing threat of predatory publications. It is a subscription based database and can be accessed at https://www2.cabells.com/about-blacklist
The MIAR (Information Matrix for the Analysis of Journals) recently issued its 2019 version. This resource gathers key data for identification and analysis of journals which can assist researchers in determining the credentials of scholarly journals. MIAR is freely available and searchable online at http://miar.ub.edu.
This helpful comparison of good scholarly publishing practices and predatory publishing was published in the South African Journal of Science (Mouton & Vale 2017).
Statement on ethical research and scholarly publishing practices