Predatory Journals
The term „Predatory Journals“ was first introduced by Jeffrey Beall, a librarian at the University of Colorado.
Basic characteristics of predatory journals and their publishers
- They use titles similar to prestigious journals;
- They offer a short process for publishing an article;
- The peer review process does not follow the usual rules and is suspiciously short, often within a few days or not at all;
- They entice authors to publish in journals via email;
- Their goal is to profit from publishing fees.
They often provide false information on their websites about
- Peer Review When we verify its process we find that it does not occur.
- Impact Factor value The IF value is either incorrectly stated (deliberately overstated), is invalid or the journal does not have an IF (according to the Journal Citation Reports).
- Indexing of the journal in selected databases Web of Science, Scopus etc.
Some other features of predatory journals
- They do not provide information on the review process;
- They list misleading metrics (Global Impact factor, General Impact factor, CiteScore, etc.) that have nothing to do with the true Impact Factor metric;
- They don't have an archive of articles on the site, articles or full texts are unavailable, links to DOIs of articles don't work;
- The editor-in-chief of the journal is not listed, some members of the editorial board cannot be traced, the data are not updated or the affiliations of these persons are missing;
- They do not provide information about anti-plagiarism software;
- Identity-stealing journals can easily be confused with original journals because the predator uses the same journal´s name and ISSN but uses a different website (example: Sylwan, Wulfenia, etc.).
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Cabell´s Predatory Reports
You can use Cabell´s Predatory Reports - which MENDELU has prepaid and is available to students and employees of MENDELU from the IP address of MENDELU or based on the e-mail address @mendelu.cz.
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Think, check, submit
Think, check, submit website helps researchers identify trusted journals and publishers for their research.
How to select an unknown journal for publication
- Check carefully the details of the publisher and the journal itself. Find out about the peer review process, the journal's editor-in-chief, including affiliations and contact information. Find out about the Article Processing Charge (APC).
- Check the journal's Impact Factor in the database Journal Citation Reports (JCR)
- If it is an Open Access journal, check if the journal is listed in the DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals). If a journal is listed in DOAJ, it has been evaluated and meets the requirements of the database. However, not all open journals are indexed here.
- Check the archive of the journal for articles that have already appeared in the journal.
- A warning sign may be an excessive multiple year-on-year increase in the number of published articles. You can find the number of articles in the Web of Science database, when searching for a journal, under its name (Publication Titles). After searching for a journal in the database, the number of articles is displayed in the Publication Years tab.
- Ask the Library/Open Science Centre: predatorske-casopisy[at]mendelu.cz
Predatory conferences
Predatory conferences and publication in conference collections of these suspicious conferences are also emerging. It may happen that collections from unknown conferences are not indexed in the Web of Science or Scopus databases, although the indexing is announced in the conference information. Sometimes it happens that collections are not peer-reviewed.
- Learn how to identify predatory conferences.
- Think Check Attend - webpage how to choose right conference to attend.
- Beware the World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology (WASET) conferences!
Resume of MENDELU Library screening of the MDPI publisher
Publication in economic journals and special issues should be proceeded with caution.
Journals that have been published for a longer period of time are indexed in the Scopus or Web of Science (WoS) databases and have therefore been evaluated by the database providers, Elsevier - Scopus, Clarivate Analytics - Web of Science. Articles in these journals have citations, and if they have not been removed from the databases, there is no reason why it would be a problem to publish with MDPI. Before publishing, it is important to check whether the journal is indexed in the WoS database or the Scopus database and the journal ´ s metrics, so that the result can be evaluated within the M17+ methodology. The university is aware of the negative attitudes towards the MDPI publisher, and therefore articles from MDPI publisher have not been supported from the Open Access Fund since 2023.
Information about Heliyon journal, ISSN 2405-8440
The journal has shown a sharp increase in the volume of articles per year over the last 3 years, which may be a sign that the review process may not always be carried out in a high-quality manner. The journal's production is also listed in the Web of Science database: HERE. Authors should be cautious when choosing a multidisciplinary journal.
Useful links
Campbell, Brian. 2023. P9 Signs a conference is fake. In: Ex Ordo [online]. [cit. 2024-05-030]. Available from: https://www.exordo.com/blog/9-signs-this-is-a-fake-conference/
Mackenzie, Ruairi J. 2019. Inside a “Fake” Conference: A Journey Into Predatory Science In: technologynetworks.com [online]. [cit. 2024-05-30]. Available from: https://www.technologynetworks.com/tn/articles/inside-a-fake-conference-a-journey-into-predatory-science-321619
ŠÍMOVÁ, Tereza; PAULOVÁ, Kristýna; ZYCHOVÁ, Kristýna. 2022. The Stop Predatory Practices teaching module. In: https://www.stoppredatorypractice.com/ [online]. [cit. 2023-01-02]. Available from:https://www.doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/GK7RH