And here is a link to an article in the Economist that talks about this problem, noting that there are thousands of this type of journal out there. https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2018/07/10/what-are-predatory-academic-journals

Hi John,

Essentially, 'red flag' number 1 with predatory journals is always be very wary when any journal approaches you directly. There are some established open access journal corporations i.e. SAGE - but most people know that they are established and they mostly send out generic invitations -more based on 'do you know this journal/suite of journals exists - related to your topic area?'. If you are not sure - then Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a good site to check first. If the journal targeting you is not on there - it's another red flag. Then there are many other red flags - such as:

• Poor quality online interface.
• Minimal and/or very broad journal scope i.e. we publish almost anything.
• Poor English quality and grammatical errors.
• Check the country of origin.
• Unknown editors.
• Unknown or no editorial board and/or all based in the country of origin
• Unsophisticated online manuscript submission processes i.e. send a word document by email
• Upfront publishing charges
• Not registered or associated with any reputable professional bodies and/or citation agencies.
• Check the quality of existing articles in the journal.

There has been a lot of work done on predatory publishing in health care and nursing. Generally, for all the disciplines Beall's list is useful (https://beallslist.weebly.com/) as it provides a list of predatory publishers and journals, which some people might consider legitimate.

In nursing, it is highly recommended not to publish in predatory journals. However, unfortunately, there are many who still publish for the sake of quick peer review and publication. Here is a list of studies, editorials, and discussions on the very topic. I am currently working on a project to determine the prevalence of predatory publishing in nursing in Pakistan. Therefore, I already had a list of primary sources.

Beall, J. (2016a). Essential information about predatory publishers and journals. International Higher Education, (86), 2-3. https://ejournals.bc.edu/ojs/index.php/ihe/article/viewFile/9358/8368

Beall, J. (2016b). Beall's list of predatory journals and publishers. Retrieved from: https://beallslist.weebly.com/

Broome, M. E. (2017). Predatory publishing is everyone's concern. Nursing outlook, 65(6), 667-668.

Clark, A. M., & Thompson, D. R. (2017). Five (bad) reasons to publish your research in predatory journals. Journal of advanced nursing, 73(11), 2499-2501.

Darbyshire, P. (2017). [Epub ahead of print] Fake news. Fake journals. Fake conferences. What we can do. Journal of Clinical Nursing. doi: 10.1111/jocn.14214

International Academy of Nursing Editors (INANE) (2014) http://naepub.com/predatory-publishing/2014-24-3-2/

Kearney, M. H., & INANE Predatory Publishing Practices Collaborative. (2015). Predatory publishing: what authors need to know. Research in nursing & health, 38(1), 1-3.

Kennedy, M. S. (2015). Predatory publishing is no joke. American Journal of Nursing, 155(4), 7. doi: 10.1097/01.NAJ.0000463004.66152.67

Mckenna, S., (2017). Why developing countries are particularly vulnerable to predatory journals. Retrieved from: http://theconversation.com/why-developing-countries-are-particularly-vulnerable-to-predatory-journals-86704

Moher, D., Shamseer, L., Cobey, K. D., Lalu, M. M., Galipeau, J., Avey, M. T., ... & Daniel, R. (2017). Stop this waste of people, animals and money. Nature, 549(7670), 23-25.

Oermann, M. H., Conklin, J. L., Nicoll, L. H., Chinn, P. L., Ashton, K. S., Edie, A. H., ... & Budinger, S. C. (2016). Study of predatory open access nursing journals. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 48(6), 624-632.

Oermann, M. H., Nicoll, L. H., Chinn, P. L., Ashton, K. S., Conklin, J. L., Edie, A. H., ... & Williams, B. L. (2018). Quality of articles published in predatory nursing journals. Nursing outlook, 66(1), 4-10.

Oermann, M. H., Nordstrom, C. K., Wilmes, N. A., Denison, D., Webb, S. A., Featherston, D. E., ... & Kowalewski, K. (2008). Dissemination of research in clinical nursing journals. Journal of clinical nursing, 17(2), 149-156.

Sorrell, J., & Owens, J. (2015). Ethics: predatory publishing: keeping the wolves from your office door. OJIN, 20. http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/Columns/Ethics/Predatory-Publishing-Keeping-the-Wolves-from-Your-Office-Door.html

Watson, R. (2017). Predatory publishers: Time for action. Nursing open, 4(4), 186-186.

Xia, J., Harmon, J. L., Connolly, K. G., Donnelly, R. M., Anderson, M. R., & Howard, H. A. (2015). Who publishes in “predatory” journals?. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 66(7), 1406-1417.

I just was sent this link today to an article that focuses on this problem in relation to India, which seems to be a one of the main centers for these predatory journals

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/inside-indias-fake-research-paper-shops-pay-publish-profit-5265402/

I think it is extremely important to make sure that graduate students are aware of this. As noted in the replies, this issue has been significant in medical and scientific fields, but it is beginning to work its way into many other areas. Many of these journals do not do any peer review. Part of what fascinates me is that some of them send emails not only directed to me, but also noting an article with the correct title, that I published in a legitimate journal and asking me to submit something similar--usually by next week. My main concern with this is in making sure that graduate students and early-career researchers and professors are aware of the problem. Based on my experience, it seems that many in the humanities, in particular, are not very aware that this is going on.

Predatory journals stand out like a sore thumb.

Please ignore them.