Interesting, I came across this issue this week. It seems that a lot of work has been done by some academics to set criteria for "predatory journals" and to identify them. Here is one website (Scholarly Open Access): http://scholarlyoa.com/individual-journals/

Hi Gunasingham, you have indeed raised an important issue. The concept of "open access" has taken a turn towards an increased number publications. Unfortunately the 'era of publish or perish' has forced researchers to fall for the claims put forward by these predatory journals. The website highlighted by Glenn above is a good source to identify these predatory journals.

Thank you Glenn and Abraham. The trouble I had is not publishing . I have been asked by a journal to review the manuscript. With the good intention, and it was in my specialized area, then I accepted to review it. With all the busy schedule, I reviewed the manuscript and reported that the contents of the abstracts appeared in the same in another article. i have pointed out this to the editor of the journal but they didnt notify it seriously and published the paper. After that only I realized that we have been treated as "fools' and these journals publish our profile and take all the advantages. I have asked the journal to delete myself from the reviewers list. This is also to my fellow researchers that we should not fall in the trap of these cheap, predatory journals.

Gunasingham you have made a very valid point, wherein 'predatory' journals are not interested in publishing authentic quality work, but more in the process of making money. And 'researchers' are partly to be blamed because publishing in these journals is a easy way out for them to either for short term gains or to show-off in their profile about number of publications they have. If you have even one good publication in a reputed journal, you are bound to get invitation from such predatory journals to be part of their team. Worst still, many a times, they will include your name even without your consent. So checkout if the concerned journal has actually taken off your name. As researchers concerned about quality, we should stay away from such journals. The scholarly open access blog as mentioned by Glenn and Abraham has good suggestions to identify such journals and stay away.

At a local level, you should alert your colleagues, university officials and library staff about such journals. It will take a collective effort to prune such journals from all key stakeholders.

I appreciate your efforts in bringing this topic up. for discussion

Thank you Sundar Kumar for your valuable discussion. You are rightly mentioned about listing the researchers name in their reviewer profile or sometimes claim as an editor of a journal. Surprisingly, being an editor need experience and no one haphazardly fell into this "troublesome" responsibility. I wish to hear from fellow researchers that is there any rules/institution/authoritative person to blacklist such "Predatory" journals and to claim some action against their fraudulent action. At last these journals trying to trap some one and comfortably survive with the money collected from the authors of the articles

I wish to hear from the research community on this.

To me, this seems like a fairly safe rule for authors generally, and especially academic authors: Never pay anyone to have your articles printed, unless you see it as advertising. I came across one business magazine that operated on the basis of authors paying to have their articles in the magazine (it had other advertising as well), but it doesn't give the magazine much basis for credibility, just on principle.

I have contributed many articles (not academic papers) to professional magazines for no pay, but that's the norm in my experience.

The concept of paying for publications saw the rise in open-access journals. However, when the payment decides the decision of the article, then it becomes unethical. This is a decision that the author has to take on his own and it is his sole responsibility to ensure his research is published is good journals.

Most academic institutions monitor the faculty publications and they will consider publications valid only when the journals are indexed in various established databases (e.g., MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL,PsychInfo etc). I am not aware of an authority in existence which will blakcklist these journals. Perhaps ICMJE should draw up and enforce rules regarding how a journal should function. As of now, the best way to go about it is to look at the MEDLINE database (or any other established indexing database) to identify which journals are indexed in it and publish in those journals.

However, the rapid speed of publication and a 'sham peer review' offered by these journals is what attracts researchers to publish in them so as to boost their publications. In this situation, there are people who will have no issue in paying their so-called 'publication fee'. It finally comes down to the author and his responsibility to the scientific community.

Thanks to hear from Glenn and Abraham again. Quite interesting to hear your views. My concern is not only the publishing papers but also worried about reviewing papers. Though these open access journal ask for a favour to review the manuscripts with a set of rules and regulations but did not seriously consider the comments given in review reports. Finally I found some of the journals published with the same mistakes. Further because of the speed in publishing, it cause duplicating the publication and ends up with a “mess’ in plagiarism. How could the researchers escape from these trap falls?

Thanks Abraham. The problem under consideration envelops two questions upstream of the so-called "predatory journals" inherent in academic publications. At least in Italy.

The first is inherent in the quality of the Scientific Committee who chairs the magazines online.

The second refers to the revision of the text to be published by one or two academic competent in matters that do not know the author of the article (so blind).

In this regard I would like to relate a personal episode. To publish the article, then appeared as "The processing of personal data contained in the documentation of social service", in "Minori Giustizia", 2009, 2, 129, drafting rivedette text (also from the grammatical point of view! ) including notes.

Since I wrote on a topic virgin, there were no doctrinal references or case-law, if not working by analogy.

The auditor managed to find a note in a passage of about seven words, exactly the same as published on the website of an Italian Order of Lawyers and forced me to quote this source, where I did not know there was such a script.

Dear Marco,

Your answer is giving another insight , I feel, due to nonavailability of such information to the research world. Similar incidences happen in many postgraduate degree thesis where they do not publish or will not take much interest to publish rather complete their degree and leave. The problem is the non availability of such information to the fellow researcher and when you quote , it will be claimed by some one else. Some times people quote it as (Unpublished), which create some more problem in this context. Whenever you come to know that the piece of information is published previously then it is better to quote as per the "ethical point of view' as well as to escape from the charges of Plagiarism.

A good place to view your dear Gunasingham.

Dear Gunasingham, I hit upon this recent editorial published in Indian Journal of Medical Research and thought it is very relevant to the current discussion.

Please see if this is useful for you.

Satyanarayana K. Journal publishing: the changing landscape. Indian J Med Res [serial online] 2013 [cited 2013 Aug 7];138:4-7. Available from: http://www.ijmr.org.in/text.asp?2013/138/1/4/116166

I read the article suggested by Sundar Kumar and I have been impressed first of all by the fact that the peer review process has been outsourced to a company that specializes in, evaluated its alleged 'unreliability' for Assessing objectively research. The undeniable advantage is the quality of their contributions.

The second important factor is the costs of managing the peer review exercise being raised can be outsourced. But what are the benefits for those working in outsourcing? What requirements must such a company?

The third element is the cost of peer review against the author who wants to publish. How is it determined? And 'sustainable even by researchers who have little or no bargaining power? Or there are the "wild card" or scholarships to their aid? This obviously discourages authors unoriginal.

Thank you Sundar Kumar, the article is valuable and gives many insights to seriously look into. Thanks again for sharing