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Do nurses publish more predatory papers than other disciplines?

Our team does not include nurses, or indeed, anybody from a medical discipline, but we have noticed that the nursing discipline does seem to over-represented in predatory publishing.

 This observation is made after working on another project and nursing seemed to stand out from the other disciplines. We delved a little deeper and we quickly found the following articles, which fitted well with the project we were engaged with.

This is by no means a comprehensive list (see the end of the article for more) but it did highlight to use the amount of research material that is published in the nursing domain.

  1. Alexander, M. 2018. Authors, beware of predatory publishing. Journal of Infusion Nursing 41(5) 277–278. https://dx.doi.org/10.1097/NAN.0000000000000299
  2. Ashton, K. S. 2019. Teaching nursing students and nurses about predatory publishing. Journal of Nursing Education 32(3) 180–181. https://dx.doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20191021-03
  3. Clark, A.M. and Thompson, D.R. (2017), Five (bad) reasons to publish your research in predatory journals. J Adv Nurs, 73: 2499-2501.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jan.13090
  4. Gabrielsson, S., Eriksson S., T. Godskesen. 2021. Predatory nursing journals: A case study of author prevalence and characteristics. Nursing Ethics 28(5) 823–833.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0969733020968215
  5. Hijji, B. M. 2021. A warning against predatory publishing services. Journal of Nursing Measurement 29(3) 377.
  6. Kennedy, M. S. 2020. Predatory publishing is alive and well. American Journal of Nursing 120(4) 7.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.NAJ.0000659932.41029.4a
  7. Lewinski, A. A., M. H. Oermann. 2018. Characteristics of e-mail solicitations from predatory nursing journals and publishers. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing 1(4) 177–177.  https://dx.doi.org/10.3928/00220124-20180320-07
  8. McCann, T. V., M. Polacsek. 2018. False gold: Safely navigating open access publishing to avoid predatory publishers and journals. Journal of Advanced Nursing 74(4) 809–817.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jan.13483
  9. Milton, C. L. 2019. Predatory publishing in nursing. Nursing Science Quarterly 32(3) 180–181.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0894318419845400
  10. Oermann, M. H., J. L. Conklin, L. H. Nicoll, P. L. Chinn, K. S. Ashton, A. H. Edie, S. Amarasekara, S. C. Budinger. 2016. Study of predatory open access nursing journals. Journal of Nursing Scholarship 48(6) 624–632.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jnu.12248
  11. Oermann, M. H., L. H. Nicoll, K. S. Ashton, A. H. Edie, S. Amarasekara, P.L. Chinn, H. Carter-Templeton, L. S. Ledbetter. 2020. Analysis of citation patterns and impact of predatory sources in the nursing literature. Journal of Nursing Scholarship 52(3) 311–319.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jnu.12557
  12. Oermann, M.H., L.H. Nicoll, P.L. Chinn, K.S. Ashton, J. L. Conklin, A. H. Edie, S. Amarasekara, B.L. Williams. 2018. Quality of articles published in predatory nursing journals. Nursing Outlook 66(1) 4–10.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2017.05.005
  13. Rawas, H., J. de Beer, H. A. J. Najjar, N. Bano. 2020. Falling prey to predatory journal: Experiences of nursing faculty. International Journal of Africa Nursing Sciences 13 100222.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijans.2020.100222
  14. Siegel, T. J. 2018. Predatory publishing: What authors need to know. Teaching and Learning in Nursing 13(3) 156.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.teln.2018.03.002
  15. Watson, R. 2019. Predatory publishing continues. Nursing Open 6(1) 4–4.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/nop2.226
Number of "Predatory Publishing" returned by Scopus
Figure 1: Number of "Predatory Publishing" returned by Scopus
Figure 2: Number of Predatory Publishing papers, by discipline

To try and be a little more subjective, we took a look at Scopus and searched for “Predatory Publishing” (the quotes are part of the search). The search was done on 19 April 2022.

This search returned 310 articles (see Figure 1). If we delve a little deeper, 52 (16.77%) of the 310 articles were in the nursing domain (see Figure 2). It is also interesting to note that 136 (43.87%) of the articles were in the Medicine discipline. We assume, but have not checked, that the 52 nursing articles are captured within the 136 Medicine articles.

Putting the 118 Social Sciences articles aside (as this will cover many disciplines), Medicine and Nursing are the top represented disciplines which, we would suggest, supports our initial gut feeling that nursing has a higher representation than other disciplines in the area of predatory publishing research.

It is not necessarily the case that nursing publishes more papers in predatory journals (though we suspect that may be the case) or that there are more predatory journals that focus on nursing (we are unsure about this).

Conclusion

This article has not provided any answers. It is more like the future work section of a paper as it suggests that there is some research that is crying out to be done to try and work out why nursing (together with medicine) represents almost half the published research on predatory publishing. Perhaps this discipline just cares more about the problem that predatory publishing poses.

 

If you know, and would like to contribute a blog post, explaining why, please let us know and we would be very happy to work with you to publish your thoughts.

Finally

We thought it might be useful to list the 52 articles that we retrieved from Scopus that were published on predatory publishing in the nursing discipline, rather than just the 15 that we found as part of our current project.

  1. Hijji, B.M. A Warning Against Predatory Publishing Services (2021) Journal of Nursing Measurement, 29 (3), p. 377.
  2. Teixeira da Silva, J.A. Should anonymous and pseudonymous entities be cited or acknowledged? (2021) Journal of Professional Nursing, 37 (6), pp. 1207-1209.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2021.08.014
  3. Broome, M.E., Oermann, M.H., Nicoll, L.H., Waldrop, J.B., Carter-Templeton, H., Chinn, P.L. Publishing in Predatory Journals: Guidelines for Nursing Faculty in Promotion and Tenure Policies (2021) Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 53 (6), pp. 746-752.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jnu.12696
  4. Munn, Z., Barker, T., Stern, C., Pollock, D., Ross-White, A., Klugar, M., Wiechula, R., Aromataris, E., Shamseer, L. Should I include studies from “predatory” journals in a systematic review? Interim guidance for systematic reviewers (2021) JBI Evidence Synthesis, 19 (8), pp. 1915-1923.  https://dx.doi.org/10.11124/JBIES-21-00138
  5. Gabrielsson, S., Eriksson, S., Godskesen, T. Predatory nursing journals: A case study of author prevalence and characteristics (2021) Nursing Ethics, 28 (5), pp. 823-833.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0969733020968215
  6. Oermann, M.H., Nicoll, L.H., Ashton, K.S., Edie, A.H., Amarasekara, S., Chinn, P.L., Carter-Templeton, H., Ledbetter, L.S. Analysis of Citation Patterns and Impact of Predatory Sources in the Nursing Literature (2020) Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 52 (3), pp. 311-319.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jnu.12557
  7. Kennedy, M.S. Predatory Publishing Is Alive and Well (2020) American Journal of Nursing, 120 (4), p. 7.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.NAJ.0000659932.41029.4a
  8. Moldoveanu, B., Cuciureanu, G. Publishing as an Indicator of Scientific Research Quality and Ethics: The Case of Law Journals from Moldova (2020) Science and Engineering Ethics, 26 (2), pp. 1039-1052.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11948-020-00189-2
  9. Rawas, H., de Beer, J., Al Najjar, H., Bano, N. Falling prey to predatory journal: Experiences of nursing faculty (2020) International Journal of Africa Nursing Sciences, 13, art. no. 100222, .  https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijans.2020.100222
  10. Likis, F.E. Predatory Publishing: The Threat Continues (2019) Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health, 64 (5), pp. 523-525.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jmwh.13056
  11. Milton, C.L. Predatory Publishing in Nursing (2019) Nursing Science Quarterly, 32 (3), pp. 180-181.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0894318419845400
  12. Florczak, K.L. The Nature of Truth: The Need for Peer Review (2019) Nursing Science Quarterly, 32 (3), pp. 176-179.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0894318419845403
  13. Sanz, Á., del Valle, M.L. Predatory Publishing in Palliative Care (2019) Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 57 (6), pp. e4-e5.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2019.02.003
  14. Ashton, K.S. Teaching nursing students and nurses about predatory publishing (2019) Journal of Nursing Education, 58 (11), pp. 627-631.  https://dx.doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20191021-03
  15. Watson, R. Predatory publishing continues (2019) Nursing Open, 6 (1), p. 4.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/nop2.226
  16. Nahlen, D., Clark, S. The Publisher’s Perspective on Journal and Book Publishing (2018) Seminars in Oncology Nursing, 34 (4), pp. 381-385.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.soncn.2018.09.006
  17. Memon, A.R. Predatory Journals Spamming for Publications: What Should Researchers Do? (2018) Science and Engineering Ethics, 24 (5), pp. 1617-1639.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11948-017-9955-6
  18. Alexander, M. Authors, Beware of Predatory Publishing (2018) Journal of Infusion Nursing, 41 (5), pp. 277-278.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1097/NAN.0000000000000299
  19. Bindon, S.L. Predatory Publishing Revisited (2018) Journal for Nurses in Professional Development, 34 (4), p. 179.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1097/NND.0000000000000467
  20. Siegel, T.J. Predatory publishing: What authors need to know (2018) Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 13 (3), p. 156.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.teln.2018.03.002
  21. Sanz, Á., del Valle, M.L., Flores, L.A., Hernansanz, S., Gutiérrez, C., Ramos, D. Open access journals and predatory publishing in palliative care [Revistas de acceso abierto y voracidad editorial en cuidados paliativos] (2018) Medicina Paliativa, 25 (3), pp. 184-190.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.medipa.2017.03.003
  22. Aponte, J. Predatory Publishing and Organizers: What Scholars in Academia Need to Know (2018) Hispanic Health Care International, 16 (2), pp. 54-55.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1540415318790704
  23. Umlauf, M.G., Mochizuki, Y. Predatory publishing and cybercrime targeting academics (2018) International Journal of Nursing Practice, 24, art. no. e12656.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ijn.12656
  24. Lewinski, A.A., Oermann, M.H. Characteristics of e-mail solicitations from predatory nursing journals and publishers (2018) Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 49 (4), pp. 171-177.  https://dx.doi.org/10.3928/00220124-20180320-07
  25. McCann, T.V., Polacsek, M. False gold: Safely navigating open access publishing to avoid predatory publishers and journals (2018) Journal of Advanced Nursing, 74 (4), pp. 809-817.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jan.13483
  26. Florczak, K.L. Prevent Betrayal by Predatory Publishers: Trust But Verify (2018) Nursing Science Quarterly, 31 (1), pp. 11-14.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0894318417741100
  27. Miller, E., DeBerg, J. The Perils of Predatory Publishing: Views and Advice from an Editor and a Health Sciences Librarian (2017) Pain Management Nursing, 18 (6), pp. 351-352.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pmn.2017.10.003
  28. Broome, M.E. Predatory publishing is everyone’s concern (2017) Nursing Outlook, 65 (6), pp. 667-668.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2017.10.003
  29. Relf, M.V., Swanson, B. Predatory Publishing: A Growing Threat to HIV Nursing? (2017) Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, 28 (3), pp. 303-305.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jana.2017.03.001
  30. Lowe, N.K. Open Access and Predatory Publishing (2017) JOGNN – Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing, 46 (2), pp. 161-162.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jogn.2017.01.003
  31. Baker, J.D. Professional versus predatory publishing: Cautions for perioperative nurse authors (2016) ACORN, 29 (4), pp. 48-49.
  32. Newland, J. Predatory publishing (2016) Nurse Practitioner, 41 (8), p. 13.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.NPR.0000489539.57309.0c
  33. Angelini, D., Bakewell-Sachs, S. Predatory Publishing: What Do Perinatal and Neonatal Nurses Need to Know (2015) Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing, 29 (2), pp. 95-96.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1097/JPN.0000000000000095
  34. Nolfi, D.A., Lockhart, J.S., Myers, C.R. Predatory Publishing: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You (2015) Nurse Educator, 40 (5), pp. 217-219.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1097/NNE.0000000000000179
  35. Stone, T.E., Rossiter, R.C. Predatory publishing: Take care that you are not caught in the Open Access net (2015) Nursing and Health Sciences, 17 (3), pp. 277-279.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nhs.12215
  36. Kennedy, M.S. Predatory Publishing Is No Joke (2015) American Journal of Nursing, 115 (4), p. 7.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.NAJ.0000463004.66152.67
  37. Baker, J.D. Professional Versus Predatory Publishing: Cautions for Perioperative Nurse Authors (2015) AORN Journal, 101 (6), pp. 599-601.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aorn.2015.04.012
  38. Bradley-Springer, L. Predatory Publishing and You (2015) Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, 26 (3), pp. 219-221.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jana.2015.02.003
  39. Hill, K.S. Predatory publishing: What nurse executives need to know (2015) Journal of Nursing Administration, 45 (2), pp. 59-60.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1097/NNA.0000000000000157
  40. Susan Carroll, V. Watch out for the wolves: Predatory publishing (2015) Journal of Neuroscience Nursing, 47 (1), pp. 1-2.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1097/JNN.0000000000000126
  41. Kearney, M.H., Thorne, S., Chinn, P.L., Nicoll, L.H., Pickler, R., D’Antonio, P., Connolly, C., Peternelj-Taylor, C., Welliver, D., Don Baker, J., Flanagin, A., Bradley-Springer, L., The INANE Predatory Publishing Practices Collaborative Predatory publishing: What authors need to know (2015) Research in Nursing and Health, 38 (1), pp. 1-3.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/nur.21640
  42. Djuric, D. Penetrating the Omerta of Predatory Publishing: The Romanian Connection (2015) Science and Engineering Ethics, 21 (1), pp. 183-202.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11948-014-9521-4
  43. Beall, J. Behind the Spam: A Spectral Analysis of Predatory Publishers (2015) Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 11 (A29A), pp. 166-171.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1743921316002684
  44. Sorrell, J.M., Owens, J.K. Ethics: Predatory publishing: Keeping the wolves from your office door (2015) Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 20 (3), 1 p.  https://dx.doi.org/10.3912/OJIN.Vol20No03EthCol01
  45. Roberts, D. Author, beware! a look at the dangers of predatory publishing (2015) MEDSURG Nursing, 24 (1), p. 7.
  46. Smith, G. Predatory publishing houses: Challenging the legitimacy of open access journals (2015) Australasian Journal of Paramedicine, 12 (2), 2 p.  https://dx.doi.org/10.33151/ajp.12.2.234
  47. Proehl, J.A., Hoyt, K.S. Predatory publishing: What editors need to know (2015) Advanced Emergency Nursing Journal, 37 (1), pp. 1-4.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1097/TME.0000000000000046
  48. Peternelj-Taylor, C. What authors need to know about predatory publishing (2015) Journal of Forensic Nursing, 11 (1), pp. 1-3.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1097/JFN.0000000000000064
  49. Pearson, G.S. Predatory Publishing Practices and Nurses (2015) Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, 51 (1), pp. 1-2.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ppc.12094
  50. Yucha, C. Predatory Publishing: What Authors, Reviewers, and Editors Need to Know (2015) Biological Research for Nursing, 17 (1), pp. 5-7.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1099800414563378
  51. Predatory Publishing (2014) Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health, 59 (6), pp. 569-571.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jmwh.12273
  52. Boumil, M.M., Salem, D.N. In … And out: Open access publishing in scientific journals (2014) Quality Management in Health Care, 23 (3), pp. 133-137.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1097/QMH.0000000000000035