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Where (not) to publish?

wHAT YOU CAN FIND

GOLDEN RULES

IMPACT FACTORS

rECOGNIZING THEM

BRIEF INTRO

REFERENCES

PREDATORY JOURNALS

SELF-HELP CHECKLISTS

Why this?

BRIEF iNTRO

Why this?

Over the last decades, the number of research articles and research journals has grown exponentially. The increase in the number of researchers worldwide and the “publish or perish” academic policy explain, at least partly, these trends.

Click here for a definition of predatory journal

These rising trends have been accompanied by the proliferation of “predatory” journals.

An article published in a predatory journal is widely considered a waste of time, effort and money, and negatively impacts or damages the reputation of researchers and respective affiliated institutions.

Predatory journals:

• characterized by their profit-driven nature
• minimal or nonexistent peer review
• inadequate quality checks
• expedited publication processes
• suspected to engage in fraudulent/fake peer-reviewing processes
• list well-known researchers on their editorial boards without these researches’ knowledge or consent
• sometimes steal intellectual property through deception

Evolution of predatory journals

Source: The Economist. How to spot dodgy academic journals. May 30th, 2020.

predatory publishing

The InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) (2020), list common markers to identify predatory journals.

The term “predatory journal” is nuanced. Clicking on each title gives you the description of each type.

Predatory journals

Low quality journals

Deceptive journals

Fraudulent journals

(click on each "+" for details)

The InterAcademy Partnership (IAP), 2020.

Ethical problems

Poor quality

Relationship with money

Wrong information

False statements

Deceptive journals

5 tipical markers of

The InterAcademy Partnership (IAP), 2020

Rapid, cursory or non-expert peer review and/or no peer review policy

Publishes only research results that favor the interests of a particular group or organization

Copy-proofs (locks) their PDFs, thus making it harder to check for plagiarism

Not indexed in any well-known index

A substantial level of plagiarism and duplicate publications with other "predatory" journals

Publish papers unrelated to the journal's scope or papers of very low quality that will only "pollute science"

Not a member of/not following best practice guidelines from ICMJE, OASPA, COPE, CSE, EASE, etc.

Doe not allow search engines to crawl the published content, preventing content from being indexed

Reluctant to assist when a retraction is asked for, or asking for a fee

Un-cooperative when misconduct is suspected

Editorial boad members unverifiable or the same over several journals

March

No contact information provided, unclear about copyright/licences

12 Typical markers of Unnaceptably low quality journals

The InterAcademy Partnership (IAP), 2020

Optional fast-track fee-based service for expedited peer reviews which appears to provide assured publication with little or no vetting

Unclear whether journal makes unauthorised use of images without permission from copyright owners

Low quality copy-editing, proofreading, or plagiarism checks

contradictory statements, lack information, dead links, bad formatting, spelling and grammar mistakes, a lot of ads, agressive and indiscriminate solicitation practices

retraction policy, publication ethics policy, declaration of ethical approvals, IP, conflict of interest,study funding, peer revirew policy, preservation plan

Fast track

copyright

Services

Website and e-mails

lack of

Weak editorial boards

6 Typical markers of low quality journals

A predatory journal or conference

how to recognize

Beware of invitations soliciting articles (typically by email)!

Check out this video on predatory publishing and how to avoid it!

Less obvious signs

Publisher / journal is based on high research countryWebsite seems professional

Click on the "+" symbol for real-life examples from bru members

top 10 cues

10

Promises submission- to - publication in few weeks

09

Same editor on multiple disparate journals

08

Fake ISSN and Impact factor

07

Offers you money or perks

06

Scope of journal is too wide

05

Email address is suspicious

04

Invitations sent to you repetitively or massively to thousands of researchers

03

Address you in superlative terms

02

Unusual language in the field

01

Invitations outside your field of expertise

of typical characteristics of predatory journals

Self-help checklists

Contextualize your topic

An awesome title

Two popular check lists free of charge for checking predatory journals and conferences are Think.Check. Submit and Think.Check.Attend. Cabell's Scholarly Analytics analyses over 70 journal behavioral indicators to keep the community aware of the growing threats and to keep academia protected from exploitative operations. The link symbol below leads you to the respective website.

Think, Check, Attend

Cabell's List

• Subscription based

• Used by Responsible Research in Business & Management, is the leading institution supporting credible and useful research in the business and management disciplines

Think, Check, Submit

A brief summary of predatory publishing in 3 minutes

How much should we trust them?

Impact factors

JCR impact factors and Scimago scores are useful tools to evaluate the relative quality of journals but are influenced by many factors unrelated to scientific quality. Having a high impact factor does not rule out the possibility of a journal to be predatory or a low-quality journal. To illustrate the problems of using solely JCR/Scimago impact factors to evaluate the quality of journals, the Table shows an example comparing three business journals Management Science and Organization Science, which are ABS 4* but Q2 in JCR 2022, and Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, which is Q1 in JCR 2022 but ABS1. Click on the eye to explore!

What does BRU use?

Some golden rules

Here are some valuable practices to steer clear of “predatory” journals!

Each "+" will give you a golden rule!

BRU is a top-tier research center evaluated by FCT as “Excellent”. This excellency in research was possible due to the high-quality research criteria of BRU.

BRU Research Criteria

BRU eligibility criteria requires that all publications should be from publishers of journals with a ranking of 2 or higher in the ABS Academic Journal Guide 2021 list. Give preference to such publishers.BRU identifies a list of relevant research areas. Consider only journals that are included in BRU research areas.BRU scientific awards reward publications in top journals. Give preference to journals that meet the criteria for research awards.

+info

These practices are essential to safeguard the quality and integrity of your research publication. Manage your academic reputation carefully as first impressions are often long-lasting impressions. Be careful about getting "quickie" publications, they will hurt your career in the long-run.

References

Academic Journal Guide 2021. Chartered Association of Business SchoolsGrudniewicz, A., Moher, D., Cobey, K., Bryson, G., Cukier, S., Allen, K., Ardern, C., Balcom, L., Barros, T., Berger, M., Ciro, C. A., Cugusi, L., Dahl, M., Dattani, S., Dixon, E., Dolma, S., Else, H., Fan, S., Feldman, L., … & Booth, A. (2019). Predatory journals: No definition, no defence. Nature, 576(7786), 210-212.InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) (2020). Report on Combatting Predatory Academic Journals and Conferences.Journal Impact Factor 2022, Journal Citation Reports. Clarivate, 2023.Responsible Research in Business & Management (RRBM).The Economist (2020). How to spot dodgy academic journals. May 30th, 2020.

Journals involved in fraud (often via the Internet), including illegal and even criminal activities such as phishing or using false identities to mislead authors. For example, the practice of hijacking or cloning journals, where an impostor journal assumes the identity of a genuine journal with the purpose of stealing its business. It often involves setting up a fake website, making use of the journal name, ISSN, layout and logo, and other information of a reputable journal. Hundreds of journals have been hijacked to-date. Another example is publishers who re-publish articles already in reputable journals without permission from the journal or author. These practices are illegal and criminal in many countries. Avoid these journals at all costs.

Fraudulent journals

Journals with a certain level of unethical and deceptive predatory practices. These journals are more difficult to identify as they vary in the type and number of unethical practices. Avoid these journals.

Low quality journals

Journals where the publisher provide false or dubious information about: publishing charges, the peer-review process, indexing or impact factors, the country where the publisher is based, the identity of the owner, the editor or members of the editorial board. These journals are unquestionably unethical even though not necessarily legally fraudulent. Avoid these journals at all costs.

Deceptive journals

Journals with a certain level of unethical and deceptive predatory practices. These journals are more difficult to identify as they vary in the type and number of unethical practices. Avoid these journals.

Low quality journals

Predatory journal

There is no universally accepted definition of predatory journal or predatory conference. The most widely accepted definition is provided by Grudniewicz et al. (2019): “Predatory journals and publishers are entities that prioritise self-interest at the expense of scholarship and are characterised 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”.

Journals where the publisher provide false or dubious information about: publishing charges, the peer-review process, indexing or impact factors, the country where the publisher is based, the identity of the owner, the editor or members of the editorial board. These journals are unquestionably unethical even though not necessarily legally fraudulent. Avoid these journals at all costs.

Deceptive journals

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Journals involved in fraud (often via the Internet), including illegal and even criminal activities such as phishing or using false identities to mislead authors. For example, the practice of hijacking or cloning journals, where an impostor journal assumes the identity of a genuine journal with the purpose of stealing its business. It often involves setting up a fake website, making use of the journal name, ISSN, layout and logo, and other information of a reputable journal. Hundreds of journals have been hijacked to-date. Another example is publishers who re-publish articles already in reputable journals without permission from the journal or author. These practices are illegal and criminal in many countries. Avoid these journals at all costs.

Fraudulent journals

To overcome the impact factors problems, BRU uses the ABS list prepared by the Chartered Association of Business Schools