Do those journals that send many proposals for fast publishing and say that they are high-impact journals think that someone believes that? Not long ago they were just from poor countries, but now they are big business...
It seems that there are enough people who believe these promises and are uninformed about the practices. Otherwise this fraudulent business model would not work.
I agree. The problem is that some big journals are adopting such practices and profiting from non-innovative work.
The question arises as to how such publishers and publications should be dealt with. The most effective method seems to me to be for universities and institutes not to give money for such publications and not to reward them by only looking at the number of publications when it comes to evaluation. - About three years ago, a ResearchGate user sent me a personal question, possibly because he had got a victim of a predatory journal: "Do you know of any organizations or academic institutions that can assist in taking legal action against predatory publishers to refund fees for unethical and bad services provided?" I could not help myself and sent this question to the community (https://www.researchgate.net/post/Are_legal_actions_against_predatory_publishers_possible), but no one replied. In my opinion, such legal actions are hardly possible. This could be very complicated and expensive.
There have been a few discussions here on ResearchGate how to stop predatory publishers. Here is a selection:
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Predatory_Publishing_How_to_solve_the_problem/1
https://www.researchgate.net/post/What-actions-can-be-taken-to-stopping-predatory-journals/1
https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_are_your_thoughts_on_measures_to_curb_predatory_journals_in_the_academia/1
https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_to_file_a_complain_against_a_predatory_Journal/1
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Why_are_government_authorities_unable_to_put_a_stop_to_predatory_journal_publishing/1
Dear Nelson Barbosa Machado Neto This is (becoming) a highly complicated issue. I think the number one reason why this matter is so hard to solve is: how to determine what is really predatory?
It is only since fairly recent that a serious attempt has been made to come up with a definition: Article Predatory journals: no definition, no defence
They state at the end of the paper “The publish-or-perish culture, a lack of awareness of predatory publishing and difficulty in discerning legitimate from illegitimate publications fosters an environment for predatory publications to exist.”
-First the last point, discerning legitimate from illegitimate: Although in let’s say 80% of the cases mentioned in the Beall’s list (https://beallslist.net ) the predatory behavior is obvious and can be identified as such for certain there are a significant number of journals and publishers which listing is unjustified. Most likely those cases suffer from lack of resources and are somewhere along the road in their ‘learning curve’. To estimate the degree of (low) quality and inexperience is a tough task
-Second the point of awareness of predatory publishing: Increase the awareness of predatory publishing is I think the most important and promising way to tackle this problem. Paraphrasing what is said by Wolfgang R. Dick “If no one fall for the false promises and are informed about these practices then this business model stops working”
Third the publish-or-perish culture ‘fuels’ the phenomenon of predatory publishing: Indeed, as pointed out by Wolfgang R. Dick no longer giving any kind of credit for publishing in these type of journals will discourage scientists to publish in such journals. However, again, it is extremely difficult (besides the obvious ones) to determine whether the paper is published in a ‘real’ predatory journal
How hard it is to discriminate between legit and illegitimate journals is illustrated by for example the ever-growing list of discontinued journal titles Scopus publish and updates on a regular base (see for the latest version enclosed file).
Having said all this it might be a good first step to act against all the obvious cases where there is no doubt that they are predatory.
Best regards.
Thank you, DR. Nelson Barbosa Machado Neto for starting this discussion.
We understand predatory publishing is exploitative and unethical.
Any publisher engaging in illegal behavior needs to be evaluated by the author on a case-to-case basis.
Many times, we find it difficult to assess which journal is predatory. Occasionally, the assessment is disputable.
The best one can do is not to engage with a journal if one thinks it to be predatory.