Predatory journal in research | Identify fake Journal

“Predatory journal in research’ is a fake-full text freely available online journal that takes the publication charges without providing the editorial and publication services. Therefore, they keep the publication fee generally low, so as to attract readers.

Basic terminology related to the “Predatory journal in research”:

“Predatory publishing can be described as a low quality, amateurish, and often unethical academic publishing that usually have an Open Access (OA)”——– (Berger, 2017, p. 206)

 

“Predatory publishers in research” are the ones that exploit the gold open-access model for their own profit. They take undue advantage of the scholarly authors. They generally pretend to be legitimate as copying is established for the respected journals’ websites and practices. Many do a poor or fake peer-review. Thus, it predates the researchers and thus abolishes their research careers.

Why do scholars become victims of “predatory journals in research”?

1. 1. Cheap: The young scholars are in hurry to get more and more articles registered, but the top journals charge high for the publication and editorial services. On the other hand, when they find the journals, which charge less, they get automatically attracted towards them.
   2. Easy acceptance: These journals do not have the authorization to get public funds or grants. In fact, they try to show all the backgrounds which creates a fake illusion of the presence of the journal.
   3. Fast publishing: They easily accept any paper and create multiple copies. Thus, the availability of the work is shown to the other people.
   4. Ignorance: The researchers generally ignore the cross-checking of the journal lists. They fall prey to the easy publication service offered by well-known researchers. The researchers generally focus on quantity over quality; therefore, they ignore the journal.

The damage caused by these “Predatory journal in research” is as listed below:

1. 1. Due to the easy publication service being offered by these Predatory Journal bodies, we find that there are high chances of published research being misconducted or plagiarized.
   2. It might also damage scholarly publishing and promote unethically
   3. It generally feeds the bogus research to the societal institutions that depend on authentic science.
   4. These predatory journals are polluting the taxonomy of classification, as the categorization list is not maintained properly by these journals.
   5. This poor publication procedure leads to bad quality research papers publication.
   6. The open access to predatory publishing might also get corrupted, due to these predatory journals.

How does the “Predatory journal in research” manage the publications (Methodology?)

1. 1. By hijacking the top journals’ website and start publishing the papers.
   2. These journals contract with the paper mills for the publication
   3. They create a spam profile and start emailing to scholars, so as to trap them.

Practices of “Predatory journal in research”:

1. 1. Falsely claiming to provide peer-review.
   2. Lying about affiliations with prestigious scholarly/ scientific organizations.
   3. Claiming affiliation with a non-existent organization.
   4. Naming reputable scholars to editorial boards without their permission.
   5. Falsely claiming to have a high journal impact.
   6. Falsely claim of being included in the prestigious indexes.

How does one find out if a given journal is predatory or not?

To check this, one has to work and well research. If one is not hard-working, one will come to the wrong conclusion. It is not mandatory that the journal from an unknown publisher is necessarily predatory. The important point here is to submit the paper.

Here is a curated list of Beall’s criteria for the identification of Predatory journal in research and publishers:

1. 1. A single individual can never be identified as the specific journal’s editor without the editorial board or with the same editorial board having multiple names.
   2. The editor and/or review board members do not have any academic expertise in the journal’s field.
   3. If the Journal provides insufficient information or hides information about author fees, offering to publish an author’s paper and later sending an unanticipated ‘surprise’ invoice.
   4. No proper indexing is offered.
   5. The name of a journal is unrelated to the journal’s mission and it does not adequately reflect its origin (e.g. a journal with the word ‘Canadian’ or ‘Swiss’ in its name when neither the publisher, editor, nor any purported institutional affiliate relates whatsoever to Canada or Switzerland).
   6. The publisher has poorly maintained websites, including dead links, prominent misspellings, and grammatical errors on the website.
   7. The publisher makes unauthorized use of licensed images on their website, taken from the open web, without permission or license from the copyright owners.
   8. They re-publish papers already published in other venues/outlets without providing appropriate credits.
   9. They might use boastful language claiming to be a ‘leading publisher’ even though the publisher may only be a start-up or a novice organization.
   10. Also, essential services like copyediting or proofreading of submissions are not offered by them.
   11. They publish papers that are not academic at all
   12. The publisher hides or does not reveal its location and publishes journals that are excessively broad (e.g. Journal of Education).
   13. They combine two or more fields not normally treated together (e.g. International Journal of Business, Humanities and Technology) in order to attract more articles and gain more revenue from author’s fees.

Please think and analyze well the following points, so as to prevent the trap of the predatory journal in research:

1. 1. Do you or your colleagues know the journal?
   2. Can you easily identify and contact the publisher?
   3. Is the journal clear about the type of peer review it uses?
   4. Do you use the articles that are indexed in services?
   5. Kindly confirm the publication fees beforehand.
   6. Do you recognize the editorial board?
   7. Whether the publisher is a member of a recognized industry initiative or not (COPE, DOAJ, and OASPA)?

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Read the recent article:

http://65.2.154.159/research-insights/what-is-sci-ssci-science-citation-index-social-science-citation-index/

Check out the list:

https://predatoryjournals.com/journals/