PREDATORS IN PUBLICATION: BEWARE!

Similar to other fields, where fake players operate; fake publishers are also available in the field of publication. These fake publishers are called as predatory journals. They often pretend as OAJs (Open Access Journals) and not prominently as CAJs (Closed Access Journals) as CAJs do not charge for processing the articles.

Predatory Journals take advantage of authors by asking them to publish for a fee without providing peer-review or editing services. Because, predatory publishers do not follow proper academic standards for publishing and they usually offer a quick turnaround time for publishing a manuscript.

In contrast, high quality academic journals take longer time to publish articles as they go through a proper peer-review, revision and copy editing process.

The goal of Open Access publishing is to disseminate research to a larger audience by removing paywalls. Open Access journals can have Impact Factors and can create a citation advantage for authors. Those journals may solicit authors to publish for a fee, but maintain high standards for peer-review, revision and editing.

How to detect a predatory journal?

Do you or your colleagues know the journal? Do you recognize the editorial board?
Can you easily contact the publisher?
Is the journal clear about their peer-review process?
Is it clearly saying what fees will be charged?
Does the website look good and is it error free?

If the answer is no for any of these questions, the journal is most likely questionable or predatory.

Now you may have a question on how to find a predatory journal in the internet or whether the journal that you have planned to publish your paper is a reputed journal. You can check the journal name in SJR (SCImargo Journal Rank) or DOAJ (Directory for Open Access Journal). These search engines will help you to find out the impact of the journal and quality too. Moreover, you may use the Beall’s list of predatory journals to find predatory journals and publishers.

Choose your journal wise!

Written by
Ruksheela Bangamuwage
Email: ruksheela@tiikm.com