Most readers here have received them before (if they didn’t just go to spam). The subject line often goes a little like this: “Your Amazing Research Should Grace our Journal.”
The journal’s name often sounds legitimate enough (e.g. “Transdisciplinary International Journal of Social Sciences“), but you don’t recall ever seeing it or citing it before. You also may notice that the language in the message itself may sound a little “funny” (e.g. “Warm greetings!”). If you visit the website of the publisher, you might see that it looks legitimate enough, but you can’t find where it is indexed, and you do not recognize any of the journal editors’ names. They do post editorial decision turnaround times though, something like “Decision in 24 hours!”
Since you’re smart, you shrug it off and move on. Unfortunately, not everyone in academia does. And the consequences can be serious —a lose, lose.
I speak from experience
I once fell prey to such a journal. In 2011 I was a postdoc researching university lecture discourse in the UK, part of a large ESRC funded project. As with most grants, we had outputs we had promised, one being a few articles in “high quality journals.” One day, the PI got an invitation a lot like the one I described above. Excited that an opportunity had fallen in his scholarly lap, he accepted the invitation, asking me to take the writing lead. Long story short, my efforts went in vain. Today, if you try to search for that article in Google Scholar (I just did a second ago again), you will find it that it exists, but has zero citations. And there’s what I see as the biggest problem: a project that was dear to me, all that time invested, all for naught. It was a tree that fell in an uninhabited forest. I don’t list the article on my CV, and it certainly doesn’t count towards my h-Index. For me and my three collaborators, it was all a big embarrassing nothingburger.
Back then, there was far less awareness of predatory journals. Perhaps if it happened today, I would notice that the journal website looks like it was done as an 8th grade computer class project… in the 1990s. I would probably see that the submission email is a Gmail address, and think, um, no.
Unfortunately, predatory journals have rapidly proliferated in academia, threatening to erode scholarly publishing standards. These are publications that solicit manuscripts aggressively, charge authors fees without providing real editorial services, and make false claims about peer review, editorial boards, and journal metrics. Most alarmingly, they publish manuscripts with minimal or no review for a fee, undermining scientific rigor and polluting the literature (Elmore & Weston, 2020).
I learned from that 2011 experience, but the purpose of this post is to help prevent others from going through that school of hard knocks.
Who is at risk?
There is no one specific population that is especially at risk when it comes to predatory journals. While early-career scholars are often considered most vulnerable, recent research indicates even experienced faculty publish in predatory journals. A 2018 study found seasoned researchers knowingly publish in these outlets to meet promotion requirements or due to difficulty getting published elsewhere (Kurt, 2018). Financial incentives like per-publication bonuses may also motivate faculty, especially in developing countries where predatory journals target local authors (Demir, 2018).
But you’re here in Oklahoma. Why should you (and your students) be concerned? Though predatory publishing originated in developing countries, it’s spreading rapidly worldwide. One study found a sharp increase in publications by authors at Belgian institutions (Eykens et al., 2019), while another reported submissions from esteemed Western researchers, lured by flattering solicitations (Kurt, 2018). Without vigilance, predatory journals could distort the scholarly record in any discipline.
Protect Yourself and Your Field
Faculty can play a key role in upholding publishing standards. Here are some ways professors can safeguard their work and discipline:
- Educate early-career scholars. Have open conversations about predatory journals with students and mentees. Offer publishing guidance and talk about pitfalls (Mertkan et al., 2021).
- Advocate for quality over quantity. When mentoring and evaluating colleagues, emphasize journal quality and ethical standards over impact metrics or number of publications. Set an example through your own careful publishing choices.
- Know the signs of predatory publishers. Watch for unsolicited invitations (when was the last time Science asked you to submit a manuscript?), false claims of indexation or metrics, unrealistic promises of rapid publication, and pressure to pay fees immediately. Consult tools like ThinkCheckSubmit.org to vet unfamiliar journal titles (Elmore & Weston, 2020).
- Scrutinize CV items carefully. If advising on promotions or tenure cases, check journal quality indicators for all publications and be wary of unfamiliar journals. Politely seek clarification rather than making assumptions.
- Submit your research only to trusted journals. When choosing where to publish, select journals you know, the ones you read and cite. Avoid anything with a questionable review process or lack of transparency (Elmore & Weston, 2020). If you are unsure, use the features described in this post to help decide if you still want to submit and, when in doubt, consult your OU Library Liaison.
Put another way, it is not only your reputation, but in a way the reputation of academia as a whole is involved. Faculty have the standing and responsibility to uphold high publishing standards, starting with our own work. Through mentorship, advocacy and conscientious research practices, professors can model integrity and help prevent others from experiencing what happened to me all those years ago.
References:
Demir, S. B. (2018). Predatory journals: Who publishes in them and why? Journal of Informetrics, 12(4), 1296-1311. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2018.10.008
Elmore, S. A., & Weston, E. H. (2020). Predatory journals: What they are and how to avoid them. Toxicologic Pathology, 48(4), 607–610. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192623320920209
Eykens, J., Guns, R., Rahman, A. I. M. J., & Engels, T. C. E. (2019). Identifying publications in questionable journals in the context of performance-based research funding. PloS one, 14(12), e0224541. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224541
Kurt, S. (2018). Why do authors publish in predatory journals? Learned Publishing, 31(2), 141–147. https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1150
Mertkan, S., Aliusta, G. O., & Suphi, N. (2021). Profile of authors publishing in ‘predatory’ journals and causal factors behind their decision: A systematic review. Research Evaluation, 30(4), 470-483. https://doi.org/10.1093/reseval/rvab032
