What damage do predatory journals do?
What is so bad about predatory journals? In this article we provide a few thoughts. It is certainly not a complete list, but we feel that the comments we make are important.
How many predatory journals are there?
We believe that there are about 15,000 predatory journals, although, it is quite a difficult question to answer; as we explore in this article.
Help: Should I pay the Article Processing Fee?
“I am in a bit of a tough situation. I agreed to submit my paper to a publisher and now found out they are charging huge fees and are predatory. I have signed something with them and they are making me either pay and publish or pay a huge withdrawal fee.”
How we can help (or not) with your predatory publishing questions
If you want our help on predatory publishing related issues there are various ways we try to do this. This article provides details of how we can assist you and, in many cases, why we cannot. We also hope to provide some pointers as to what you can do if you have one of the more common questions, without having to rely on us.
What are the popular predatory publishing papers in 2021?
There have been a number of papers published in 2021, which have focused on predatory publishing. If you search on Scopus (search carried out 20 Dec 2021), of the 294 papers returned by searching for “Predatory Publishing” (the quotes are part of the search), 66 were published in 2021. Some of these articles have received more citations that the others and it is these that we focus on.
Paying commission to academics reduces the value of research
Why do predatory and vanity academic publishers and conferences exist? Why are they flourishing now? And what can they tell us about the failings of academia?
EMAIL discussion with a (possible) predatory journal
This article presents an email discussion in its entirety. The journal involved is probably a predatory journal, though we have not carried out a full investigation.
Should an Editor-in-Chief’s email address be available?
We focus on one aspect of the editorial board, the editor-in-chief (EiC) and ask whether an EiC should make their email address available so that potential authors can contact them?
Scientometrics article about predatory publishing is retracted
Vít Macháček & Martin Srholec (2021) Predatory publishing in Scopus: evidence on cross-country differences, Scientometrics, 126, 1897-1921 has been retracted due to: Errors in Analyses, Errors in Methods, Unreliable Results.
We provide a few more details,
Should proof reading be acknowledged in scientific papers?
We recently ran a survey asking if an acknowledgement is required if somebody proof reads your paper. 55.6% said that no acknowledgement was required, with 44.4% saying that an acknowledge should be provided. These results come with some caveats, which we explore in this article.