Predatory Academic Practice
This practice includes activities such as publishing and conferencing that exploit academic research output for financial gain to the detriment of the academics, researchers and their institutions.
Predatory publishing exploits the principles of Open Access by profiting from a researchers' need to publish and distribute their research. These publishers often charge lower article processing charges (APCs), provide little or no peer review, and promise remarkably short publishing times. One of their key characteristics is the limited contact information provided.
Common characteristics of predatory practice:
- Their primary goal is to profit (fees are charged and can range in value).
- They do not care about the quality of the work published (i.e. no or little editing or peer-review).
- They make false claims or promises (i.e. claims of impact factors and indexing).
- They engage in unethical business practices (i.e. not as advertised).
- They fail to follow accepted standards or best practices of scholarly publishing (various).
(O'Donnell, 2012)
