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Computer Science and Computer & Software Engineering

This guide will help you in your research for computer engineering.

Characteristics of a Predatory Publishing

What are predatory journals?

Predatory journals—also called fraudulent, deceptive, or pseudo-journals—are publications that claim to be legitimate scholarly journals, but misrepresent their publishing practices (Elmore & Weston, 2020).

Elmore, S. A., & Weston, E. H. (2020). Predatory Journals: What They Are and How to Avoid Them. Toxicologic pathology, 48(4), 607–610. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192623320920209

Predatory journals are likely to possess the following characteristics: 

  1. Wide scope
  2. Claim low author-submission fees 
  3. Unprofessional website
  4. Accelerated publication process
  5. Very short peer-review period
  6. Unknown editorial board members
  7. Editorial board members are not experts in the journal topics 
  8. Errors in titles and journal descriptions
  9. Asks authors to submit articles via email or a simple form

Steps to identify predatory publishers

What to look for What to check
Contact information
  • Does the journal's website have complete contact information?
  • Does it include a verifiable address? 
Publisher affiliation

  • The publisher is not a member of a recognized scholarly organizations.

  • Tip: COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics), DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals), Latindex, and OASPA (Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association) are recognized organizations. 
Scope of the journal
  • Is the journal's scope multidisciplinary? 
  • Does it combine multiple, unrelated, and wide-ranging fields? 
  • Tip: Predatory journals lack a well-defined scope, subject area or mission. 
Editorial board
  • Does it include recognized and affiliated experts?
  • Tip: Contact a few and inquire about their experience with the journal
Author fee policy
  • Does the journal charge submission fee or article processing fee?
  • Tip: Legitimate publishers do not as for submission fee. APCs are paid post-acceptance but pre-publication. You should not be asked to pay for an APC before the peer-review process begins. These charges should be clearly listed on the publisher’s website.
Quality of articles
  • Does the journal publish good quality research?
  • Tip: Check with your Dept. Head or Supervisor to gauge quality
Peer review process
  • Is the peer review process described on the journal's website?
  • Tip: Predatory journals may have no peer review, or peer review is too fast to be true.
Indexing information
  • Is the journal indexed or a member of a prominent publisher association? 
  • Does it display an ICV (Index Copernicus Value)? 
  • Tip: Predatory journals may have fake metrics or other values like Index Copernicus Value, Global Impact Factor, Total citations)
Archiving 

  • The journal website does not provide access to previously published volumes or has volumes that that are incomplete.

  • Tip: Predatory journals often have inconsistent publication cycle, missing full-text, and articles repeated in multiple issues. 
Retraction policy
  • Does the journal have a clear policy for recalling articles?
  • Tip: Check journal policies or it's instructions to authors
Pitch for authors
  • Does the journal guarantee publication or quick peer review? 
  • Tip: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't.
E-mail invitation
  • Do the journal, it's editors and staff all have institutional or journal-affiliated email addresses?
 

Adapted from University of Missouri Libraries

"Predatory editing is a rarely discussed but rapidly spreading exploitative academic publishing practice. In parallel with the 2019 Nature consensus definition for predatory publishing, editorial agencies are generally considered predatory if they “prioritize self-interest at the expense of scholarship,” and predatory editing practices are often “characterized by false or misleading information, deviation from best editorial and publication practices, a lack of transparency, and/or the use of aggressive and indiscriminate solicitation practices" (Predatory Editing: A New Face of Predatory Publishing).

Keep an eye out for the following warning signs of potentially unethical or suspicious practices while choosing an editorial agency:

  • Promises to get your research published, especially within a certain timeframe.
  • Lacks transparency for terms and fees.
  • Offers different pricing levels depending on the target journal.
  • Violates Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and ethical publishing guidelines. (A notable example of this is ghostwriting! Ghostwriting is considered to be an unethical scholarly practice, so we suggest against working with any agency that offers this service.)
  • Lists journal partnerships on their website but are not reciprocally mentioned on the partner journal’s corresponding website.
  • Includes a false or illegitimate address as their location/headquarters.
  • Has poor webpage quality, especially one with grammatical flaws. (Note: many predatory agencies have begun updating their websites with advanced software and features, so this isn’t a hard-and-fast rule!)
  • Reaches out to you via an email solicitation, especially one with poor grammar or incorrect information about you (e.g., an incorrect field of study or name spelled wrong).

Predatory publishers and editing services send emails to solicit authors, peer-reviewers, and editorial board members. These emails typically sound the same and contain numerous spelling or grammatical errors.  If you receive one, contact your professors and librarians to verify the journal and the editorial service. The following examples are from A.T. Still Memorial Library. 

Real Life Example

Screenshot of an example of a predatory email. This email has poorly formatted name information, multiple spellling and grammar mistakes, and vague and confusing instructions.

Sample Email: Seeking Publication

Dear Author,

Hope our e-mail finds you well and in healthy mood.

I am impressed by your quality work and I really value your contribution towards recent work.

Journal X has been scheduled to release Volume 3 Issue 2 by March 31st, 2018.  

I hope Journal X goes a long way in 2018 with the association of experienced personalities like you, as we believe that, your contribution towards the research field is absolutely prominent. I would be glad to have your active participation in the journal activities that will be a good start especially in the new year.

We consider Mini Reviews, Original Research/ Review Article, Case Reports, Short Communication, Conference Proceedings, Commentaries, Book Reviews etc

This is not a spam message, and has been sent to you because of your eminence in the field. If, however, you do not want to receive any email in future then reply us with the subject remove /opt-out. We are concern for your privacy.

We look forward to a close and lasting scientific relationship for the benefit of scientific community.

Sample Email: Seeking Editorial Board Member

Dear Dr. X,

It is our immense pleasure to invite you as an Editorial Board member for Journal Y.

Publisher Y in its bag having 3500+ Open Access quality articles and more than 5000 EB has come about in the short period and we have indexed in repositories like ICMJE & Pubs Hub, that adds value to the quality work published and helps in easy access throughout the globe. 

Being aware of your proficiency and expertise in various fields we invite you to be honorable editor for Journal Y. In fact having your profile in our Journal adds visibility to us as well as many viewers will cite your profile.

If you are willing to accept our invitation to serve as an editor to the mentioned journal, kindly send us your CV, Biography, Research Interest & Recent portrait photograph.

Do not hesitate to contact us for any queries. We await your positive response.

Best Regards,
Questionable Journal

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2415937

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-08-29/medical-journals-have-a-fake-news-problem

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2016/12/16/how-academia-google-scholar-and-predatory-publishers-help-feed-academic-fake-news/#6b843b6b768a

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/science/predatory-journals-ftc-omics.html

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5723186/

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/04/us-judge-rules-deceptive-publisher-should-pay-501-million-damages

https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2018/07/10/what-are-predatory-academic-journals