The predatory publishing trap: dangers and solutions in the age of open access
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The rise of online-only, open access publishing inadvertently spawned a parasite industry of predatory journals.
- AI, checklists, critical appraisal by authors, and registers of respectable open access journals can all help protect scientific integrity.
Predatory journals aim to lure unaware, unscrupulous, or disillusioned authors, ensnaring their research and money. In an editorial for the Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association, Editor-in-Chief Are Brean describes how a “tidal wave” of increasingly sophisticated predatory journals is degrading trust in science. Over at Medscape, Neurology Editor-in-Chief José Merino and host Andrew Wilner discuss how to identify legitimate, peer reviewed journals in the era of online-only, open access publishing. Read on for a summary of their top tips.
Apex predators
Brean warns that predatory journals have come a long way since librarian Jeffrey Beall coined the term in 2008. Modern predators may:
- use names that look like those of established journals
- list reputable scientists as colleagues (without their knowledge)
- use counterfeit indexing in recognised databases
- be linked to paper mills
- ‘hijack’ legitimate journals via URL fraud.
Open access fees: when are they a red flag?
Article processing charges (APCs) are a recognised and established funding model in open access scientific publishing, and most journals are now online only. So, in this environment, how can researchers tell the difference between a legitimate journal and a fraud? Brean and Merino make the following suggestions:
- Critically assess the journal’s credentials. Ask yourself:
- Have you heard of this journal? Has anybody you know published there?
- Does the journal have a track record? When was it established?
- Is it supported by a recognisable publisher?
- Is it accessible?
- Read a sample of the journal’s output. Are the articles ‘interesting, credible, and of good quality’?
- Use a free checklist.
- Ask your medical librarian for guidance.
- Consult a register of reputable journals such as the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).
Defence mechanisms
Brean also suggests that artificial intelligence could be used to expose predatory journals. Research in this area is ongoing.
For now, the editors encourage (human) authors and researchers to be careful and critical. Don’t get caught in the predatory publishing trap.
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