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:
Fraudulent metrics are identified by the following criteria:
- Limited information is provided such as physical location, staff and managers and institutional affiliation
- The metrics generated are not based on unscientific or contrived methods.
- Google algorithms are sometimes used to determine metrics, which do not distinguish between publishing formats and may include blog posts, social media posts, magazines, newspaper articles, predatory journals as well as legitimate academic journals.
- Journals pay for the metrics service.
- The purpose of the metrics service is to profit from journals.
- Predatory journals usually list fraudulent metrics services on the websites along with other legitimate indexing services.
NRF Statement on Predatory Journals & Deceptive Publishers (2017)
DHET Research Output Policy (2015)
Predatory publishers are corrupting open access (2012)
Lists of predatory journals are often opinion based and biased. While these lists offer some guidance, they are not to be taken at face value.
Publishers grapple with an invisible foe as huge organised fraud hits scientific journals (2021)
Unethical Practices in Research and Publishing: Evidence from Russia (2021)
OSI - Deceptive Publishing (2019)
Identifying predatory and pseudo-journals
Withdrawal of a Publication Submitted to a Predatory Journal
Predatory journals in the firing line (2019)
Russian journals retract more than 800 papers after ‘bombshell’ investigation (2020)
Research published in pay-and-publish journals won’t count (June 2019)
“Predatory” vs trustworthy journals: What do they mean for the integrity of science? (2018)
The business of fake science
The extent of South African authored articles in predatory journals
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