I wonder if someone can draw a straight line to separate predatory publications from genuine publications. The difference depend on the criteria we consider and the way we look at them. A journal identified as predatory based on one criteria could belong to a white list based on another criteria. However, one of the major consideration is that whether they perform quality/genuine review and editorial work for selecting/ed articles, while not prioritising money. However, there are two types of journals that belong to the category called deceptive journals - predatory journals and low quality journals. Publishing in predatory journals will give you nothing except frustration. The type of journals you are talking about could mostly belong to the second catogory. They would improve their quality with the experience they gain. This needs time.

Dear Manjula,

I thank you for interesting reflection.

With kind regards,

Hailemariam

Hailemariam Meaza I understand your main point ...

No, even better and have greater value than any in some universities when used for promotion cases. But the arguable point and fear you raised are critical. The editors assigned there, the scientific exposure and the like are questionable and local universities should think of more on it? Basically, if they work hard there a chance to join and use the database of the well-known reputable publishers. Then the question of editorial will be resolved.

Dear Weldemariam,

You nailed my point. Thank you for your feedback. I also share you that hardworking would minimize the fear under discussion.

With kind regards,

Hailemariam

Thank you Hailemariam

Certainly, the answer for all is hardworking and determining clearly the destine.

Hello all,

I appreciate your feedback so far.

This morning I found an article titled “Defining predatory journals and responding to the threat they pose: a modified Delphi consensus process" by Samantha Cukie. The article is supportive for early-career scientists (see the attachment).

With kind regards,

Hailemariam

Hei!

We have tried to share some of our reflections related to the nature of predatory publishing and how to deal with this in the recently published editorial of the Information Systems Journal:

http://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12289

Regards

- Petter

Gentlemen, it is good to be fair and balanced in our discussions. I serve as associate editor of a journal published by the university I work in. I believe that all university journals are not predatory and all predatory journals are not published by universities only.

In evaluating a journal, It is important to see whether it fulfills the following criteria: continuity, peer review process, indexed or not (ISI WoSc, Scopus, AJOL, EJOL, etc), having ISSN or not, presence of impact factor and so on. However, this happens through long time process and hard work. There is no any journal that fulfilled all these at its inception. Hence, we should not discourage emerging journals. For example, our journal (Journal of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, published by BDU) is now releasing volume 5 and it is indexed in Ethiopian Journal Online (http://ejol.aau.edu.et/). We started from scratch and it is growing up. In the course of time, it will be known by the world. It is apparent that some information that is useful for local intervention may not be accepted for international publication. In this case, you need to look for local journals.

Please also note that some European and American journals publish by looking at the names of authors (network) rather than contents. If you are lucky enough to put a known professor in the list of authors (whether he read the manuscript or not), your publication review process will be shorter. It is well known that all published articles were not changed to knowledge. We have several professors who published in hundreds but who never wrote one best fit manual for local use.

For me a good publication is that solves the existing problem of the society, not that promotes the writer.

Yihenew G.Selassie I accept and respect your practical experience in relation to journals (predators Vs nonpredators). Following hard work, I share that journal maturity comes after time. It would be nice if all of us, the reviewers, go through a tight reviewing process. But, I am a bit doubtful about this; if this is being done everywhere.

I posted my view to get such an idea from you guys. Again, I thank you for your advice.

With kind regards,

Hailemariam Meaza

You are welcome Hailemariam. Let us build together ourselves, our journals and our country. Let us believe in our capacities and thrust each other.

Regards,

Dear Hailemariam,

Your concern is really appreciated! However, science is always evaluated in a global basis rather than a local context. I think we all try to work towards the realization of scientific works that could be judged in the scientific community regardless of where the work is done and being published. Personally, I'm a fan of peer-reviewed reputable ISI (WoS) journals.

Regards,

Getnet

Dear professionals, this is great news for young researchers and to make scientific platform!!

Dear, All

Thank to raise such important issues about scientific publication on predatory & non-predatory journals. In most cases Academic journals considered as non-predatory journals. Moreover, most of local journals don't get enough articles/papers and it takes more time to get published on time. We are trying to publish abroad on per-reviewed reputable journals due to continues publication guideline,on time publication and open access!! Therefore, we have to encourage our local Journals to do more on quality/review process!! Our aim should be to write and share scientific result rather than for promotion only!!

Abebe Chindi Degebasa I agree with your points. Thank you for your reflection.

With kinds of regards,

Hailemariam

Hailemariam:

You can refer 32.1.3 (b) and (c) of MU Legislation for reputability of journals. The MoSHE requires that all journals published by Ethiopian universities to be accredited to be considered as reputable.

Having said that, the most important thing you need to very careful is not to publish in predatory journal. It will be an uncorrectable mistake in your career. So you have to be very careful not to be trapped into that.

You may feel that your material needs to be published in good quality journal (Scopus indexed and sometimes SCI indexed, thus with impact factor). But, this is problematic for some reasons for people like you and me. (1) Since we often lack the most advanced scientific instrument, our “materials and methods” will not impress reviewers and sometimes editors. (2) Journals with high quality would ask you for a whooping APC. They will tell you that authors from low income countries are waived. But, as they will have many submissions, they may not consider your article.

Thus, it is better to look for open access journals that are indexed in Scopus (Elsevier), Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), and Science Citation Index Expanded. As authors with funding will go for journals with Impact factors (SCI-indexed), your articles can be considered in journals that are indexed in Scopus and ESCI. (Note the MoSHE requires Scopus indexing and MU requires indexing in any reputable indexer).

Hindawi, Heliyon, MBDI, PloS, BMC are some of the publishers with open access journals that process your article quickly with many of their journal indexed in Scopus. Many of their journals are listed on the document shared to all Ethiopian universities by MoSHE.

Dear Hailish and all,

This is I think very important concern and I appreciate for bringing it here. In my opinion, these local journals are not predatory journals. Because, predatory journals are by definition those journals that donot have peer review process. On the other hand, local journals have peer review process at least the once I know. Your point can be valid if we ask about the quality of reviewers as you mentioned, the editorial board, the facilities that the journal have etc. But, these problems can be solved by the senior staff in every university and scholars like you who have great supervisors by sharing experiences. I agree that these journals should not have the aim to help the staff for promotion. This will have bad consequences on the quality. But I know that there are few journals in Ethiopia that are able to attract papers from all over the world for the last 25+ years. I discussed with managing editor of the one journal in Jimma. He said that, he is PhD holder in English and he is full time worker for the journal only. So, this shows you that our local journals can have better impact if we give them attention. Another example, Journal of the Drylands from CoDANR at MU was established in 2006 by Our respected professors such as Professor Mitiku, Professor Kindeya etc. It had a lot of ups and downs. From my observation, this journal can be one of the few Ethiopian journals with better impact in the near future if we work together and if we utilize the human resource in the area. To conclude, local journals are not predatory journals but need more work to improve their quality!!

Hagos Mohammedseid Juhar, I absolutely share your points. I thank you for your nice and humble reflection.

With very kind regards,

Hailemariam

Hailemariam raised very important issue. We have observed that after a lot of hard work, especially some graduate students and junior researchers in Africa are becoming victims of predatory journals. Before submission, it is extremely important to consult the co-authors where to submit the manuscript and should agree. After all, the main reason for publication is to publicize our research results, not for promotion. Promotion is the byproduct. If you publish for the sake of promotion, believe me you will end up in very low quality publication and once you reach the last stage of promotion, you will stop research. After all, when you see back your achievements after several years, you will regret. Coming to your core question, Web of Science and SCOPUS indexed journals are mostly not predatory. You can publish there. For local journals, universities have the list of reputable local journals. If you are in a university or research center, request for the list.

@Tileye Feyissa, I thank you for reflection and concern.

Ideed, I am aware of who are the reputable journals.

Thank you

Hailemariam

I believe, one should think of publishing the research in university journals only when your findings are of local interest. If the research carried out by you has something of universal appeal and results have been obtained by following well defined methodology, one should try to publish in good journals of international repute and second preference should be journals of national repute.