Commentary: “Predatory Journals: No Definition, No Defence”

From a Commentary Published in Nature:
DOI: 10.1038/d41586-019-03759-y

Predatory journals are a global threat. They accept articles for publication — along with authors’ fees — without performing promised quality checks for issues such as plagiarism or ethical approval. Naive readers are not the only victims. Many researchers have been duped into submitting to predatory journals, in which their work can be overlooked. One study that focused on 46,000 researchers based in Italy found that about 5% of them published in such outlets. A separate analysis suggests predatory publishers collect millions of dollars in publication fees that are ultimately paid out by funders such as the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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To hammer out such a consensus and to map solutions, we and others met in Ottawa, Canada, over two days in April this year. The 43 participants hailed from 10 countries and represented publishing societies, research funders, researchers, policymakers, academic institutions, libraries and patient partners (that is, patients and caregivers who proactively engage in research). Our focus was the biomedical sciences, but our recommendations should apply broadly.

Here we put forward our definition. We describe what it took to achieve consensus and how we’ll move forward.

The definition

The consensus definition reached was: “Predatory journals and publishers are entities that prioritize self-interest at the expense of scholarship and are 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.”

Read the Complete Commentary (approx. 1800 words)

Filed under: Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Libraries, News, Publishing