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Tomlinson OW. Predatory publishing in medical education: a rapid scoping review. BMC MEDICAL EDUCATION 2024; 24:33. [PMID: 38183007 PMCID: PMC10770935 DOI: 10.1186/s12909-024-05024-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2023] [Accepted: 01/01/2024] [Indexed: 01/07/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Academic publishing is a cornerstone of scholarly communications, yet is unfortunately open to abuse, having given rise to 'predatory publishers'- groups that employ aggressive marketing tactics, are deficient in methods and ethics, and bypass peer review. Preventing these predatory publishers from infiltrating scholarly activity is of high importance, and students must be trained in this area to increase awareness and reduce use. The scope of this issue in the context of medical students remains unknown, and therefore this sought to examine the breadth of the current literature base. METHODS A rapid scoping review was undertaken, adhering to adapted PRISMA guidelines. Six databases (ASSIA, EBSCO, Ovid, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science) were systematically searched for content related to predatory publishing and medical students. Results were single-screened, facilitated by online reviewing software. Resultant data were narratively described, with common themes identified. RESULTS After searching and screening, five studies were included, representing a total of 1338 students. Two predominant themes- understanding, and utilisation- of predatory publishers was identified. These themes revealed that medical students were broadly unaware of the issue of predatory publishing, and that a small number have already, or would consider, using their services. CONCLUSION There remains a lack of understanding of the threat that predatory publishers pose amongst medical students. Future research and education in this domain will be required to focus on informing medical students on the issue, and the implication of engaging with predatory publishers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Owen W Tomlinson
- Department of Clinical and Biomedical Science, Faculty of Health and Life Science, University of Exeter Medical School, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
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Oermann MH, Waldrop J, Nicoll LH, Peterson GM, Drabish KS, Carter-Templeton H, Owens JK, Moorman T, Webb B, Wrigley J. Research on Predatory Publishing in Health Care: A Scoping Review. Can J Nurs Res 2023; 55:415-424. [PMID: 37138512 DOI: 10.1177/08445621231172621] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/05/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Predatory publishers and their associated journals have been identified as a threat to the integrity of the scientific literature. Research on the phenomenon of predatory publishing in health care remains unquantified. PURPOSE To identify the characteristics of empirical studies on predatory publishing in the health care literature. METHODS A scoping review was done using PubMed/MEDLINE, CINAHL, and Scopus databases. A total of 4967 articles were initially screened; 77 articles reporting empirical findings were ultimately reviewed. RESULTS The 77 articles were predominantly bibliometric analyses/document analyses (n = 56). The majority were in medicine (n = 31, 40%) or were multidisciplinary (n = 26, 34%); 11 studies were in nursing. Most studies reported that articles published in predatory journals were of lower quality than those published in more reputable journals. In nursing, the research confirmed that articles in predatory journals were being cited in legitimate nursing journals, thereby spreading information that may not be credible through the literature. CONCLUSION The purposes of the evaluated studies were similar: to understand the characteristics and extent of the problem of predatory publishing. Although literature about predatory publishing is abundant, empirical studies in health care are limited. The findings suggest that individual vigilance alone will not be enough to address this problem in the scholarly literature. Institutional policy and technical protections are also necessary to mitigate erosion of the scientific literature in health care.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Gabriel M Peterson
- School of Library and Information Sciences, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC, USA
| | | | | | - Jacqueline K Owens
- Dwight Schar College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Ashland University, Ashland, OH, USA
| | - Teresa Moorman
- Dwight Schar College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Ashland University, Ashland, OH, USA
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Teixeira da Silva JA, Moradzadeh M, Yamada Y, Dunleavy DJ, Tsigaris P. Cabells' Predatory Reports criteria: Assessment and proposed revisions. JOURNAL OF ACADEMIC LIBRARIANSHIP 2023. [DOI: 10.1016/j.acalib.2022.102659] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
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Nejadghanbar H, Hu G. Where predatory and mainstream journals differ: A study of language and linguistics journals. LEARNED PUBLISHING 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/leap.1485] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Hassan Nejadghanbar
- Department of English and Communication The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hung Hom Hong Kong SAR
| | - Guangwei Hu
- Department of English and Communication The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hung Hom Hong Kong SAR
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Elliott T, Fazeen B, Asrat A, Cetto AM, Eriksson S, Looi LM, Negra D. Perceptions on the prevalence and impact of predatory academic journals and conferences: A global survey of researchers. LEARNED PUBLISHING 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/leap.1458] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Tracey Elliott
- InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) c/o The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Washington DC USA
| | - Bisma Fazeen
- The National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine Washington DC USA
| | - Asfawossen Asrat
- Mining and Geological Engineering Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) Palapye Botswana
- School of Earth Sciences Addis Ababa University (AAU) Addis Ababa Ethiopia
| | - Ana María Cetto
- Instituto de Física Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) Mexico City Mexico
| | - Stefan Eriksson
- The Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics Uppsala University Uppsala Sweden
| | - Lai Meng Looi
- Faculty of Medicine University of Malaya (UM) Kuala Lumpur Malaysia
| | - Diane Negra
- Film Studies and Screen Culture University College Dublin Dublin Ireland
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Nazarovets S. Analysis of publications by authors of Ukrainian institutes in Scopus‐delisted titles. LEARNED PUBLISHING 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/leap.1464] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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Della-Sala S. Individual integrity and public morality in scientific publishing. Dement Neuropsychol 2022; 16:129-134. [PMID: 35720652 PMCID: PMC9173789 DOI: 10.1590/1980-5764-dn-2022-v001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2022] [Accepted: 01/24/2022] [Indexed: 08/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Science and science reporting are under threat. Knowingly or not, researchers and clinicians are part of this debacle. This is not due so much to the notorious replication crisis, as to our acceptance of lowering common morality for personal gains, including the widespread, deprecable phenomenon of predatory publishing. Rather than fiercefully countering this loathsome practice, academics are accepting, often supporting a masquerade solution: paying several thousand dollars to publish for all their own papers. This new policy will create a disparity across richer and poorer disciplines; will result in concentrating even more in the hands of large, rich, Western institutions, also penalising younger researchers; will kill observational studies and exploratory research; and will make disseminating science depending more on finances than on quality. This article calls for the full awareness of the academic community on the risks of the current situation in scientific publishing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sergio Della-Sala
- University of Edinburgh, Human Cognitive Neuroscience, Psychology, Edinburgh, UK
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Sureda‐Negre J, Calvo‐Sastre A, Comas‐Forgas R. Predatory journals and publishers: Characteristics and impact of academic spam to researchers in educational sciences. LEARNED PUBLISHING 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/leap.1450] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jaume Sureda‐Negre
- University of Balearic Islands Institute for Educational Research and Innovation Palma Spain
| | - Aina Calvo‐Sastre
- University of Balearic Islands Institute for Educational Research and Innovation Palma Spain
| | - Rubén Comas‐Forgas
- University of Balearic Islands Institute for Educational Research and Innovation Palma Spain
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Abstract
AbstractOne of the most fundamental issues in academia today is understanding the differences between legitimate and questionable publishing. While decision-makers and managers consider journals indexed in popular citation indexes such as Web of Science or Scopus as legitimate, they use two lists of questionable journals (Beall’s and Cabell’s), one of which has not been updated for a few years, to identify the so-called predatory journals. The main aim of our study is to reveal the contribution of the journals accepted as legitimate by the authorities to the visibility of questionable journals. For this purpose, 65 questionable journals from social sciences and 2338 Web-of-Science-indexed journals that cited these questionable journals were examined in-depth in terms of index coverages, subject categories, impact factors and self-citation patterns. We have analysed 3234 unique cited papers from questionable journals and 5964 unique citing papers (6750 citations of cited papers) from Web of Science journals. We found that 13% of the questionable papers were cited by WoS journals and 37% of the citations were from impact-factor journals. The findings show that neither the impact factor of citing journals nor the size of cited journals is a good predictor of the number of citations to the questionable journals.
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Gabrielsson S, Eriksson S, Godskesen T. Predatory nursing journals: A case study of author prevalence and characteristics. Nurs Ethics 2020; 28:823-833. [PMID: 33267732 PMCID: PMC8366180 DOI: 10.1177/0969733020968215] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Predatory publishing poses a fundamental threat to the development of nursing knowledge. Previous research has suggested that authors of papers published in predatory journals are mainly inexperienced researchers from low- and middle-income countries. Less attention has been paid to contributors from high-income countries. AIM To describe the prevalence and characteristics of Swedish authors publishing in predatory nursing journals. DESIGN Quantitative descriptive case study. PARTICIPANTS AND RESEARCH CONTEXT Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the academic positions and academic affiliations of the authors of 39 papers published in predatory nursing journals during 2018 and 2019. Predatory nursing journals with Swedish contributors were identified by searching public listings of papers and applying a set of criteria. Journal site archives were used to identify additional papers with Swedish authors. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS This study was conducted in accordance with national regulations and ethical principles of research. RESULTS Almost two-thirds of Swedish authors publishing in predatory nursing journals hold senior academic positions. A small group of higher education institutions account for a majority of academic affiliations. Findings suggest that higher education institutions and experienced nursing researchers from Sweden make substantial contributions to predatory nursing journals, but that predatory publication habits might be concentrated in a limited number of academics and research milieus. A year-to-year comparison indicates that the prevalence of publishing in predatory journals might be diminishing. DISCUSSION Swedish nurse researchers help legitimize predatory journals, thus jeopardizing the trustworthiness of academic nursing knowledge. Substandard papers in predatory journals may pass as legitimate and be used to further academic careers. Experienced researchers are misleading junior colleagues, as joint publications might become embarrassments and liabilities. CONCLUSION While the academic nursing community needs to address the problem of predatory publishing, there is some hope that educational efforts might have an effect on combating predatory publishing in nursing.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Tove Godskesen
- 211737Ersta Sköndal Bräcke University College, Sweden; Uppsala University, Sweden
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Bibliometric analysis of a controversial paper on predatory publishing. PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT AND METRICS 2020. [DOI: 10.1108/pmm-03-2020-0015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
PurposeIn 2017, one study (Derek Pyne; Journal of Scholarly Publishing; DOI: 10.3138/jsp.48.3.137; University of Toronto Press) in the “predatory” publishing literature attracted global media attention. Now, over three years, according to adjusted Google Scholar data, with 53 citations (34 in Clarivate Analytics' Web of Science), that paper became that author's most cited paper, accounting for one-third of his Google Scholar citations.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, the authors conducted a bibliometric analysis of the authors who cited that paper.FindingsWe found that out of the 39 English peer-reviewed journal papers, 11 papers (28%) critically assessed Pyne's findings, some of which even refuted those findings. The 2019 citations of the Pyne (2017) paper caused a 43% increase in the Journal of Scholarly Publishing 2019 Journal Impact Factor, which was 0.956, and a 7.7% increase in the 2019 CiteScore.Originality/valueThe authors are of the opinion that scholars and numerous media that cited the Pyne (2017) paper were unaware of its flawed findings.
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Abstract
Predatory journals-also called fraudulent, deceptive, or pseudo-journals-are publications that claim to be legitimate scholarly journals but misrepresent their publishing practices. Some common forms of predatory publishing practices include falsely claiming to provide peer review, hiding information about article processing charges, misrepresenting members of the journal's editorial board, and other violations of copyright or scholarly ethics. Because of their increasing prevalence, this article aims to provide helpful information for authors on how to identify and avoid predatory journals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susan A Elmore
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Cellular and Molecular Pathology Branch, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
| | - Eleanor H Weston
- Vista Technology Services Inc, Contractor for the NIEHS Library, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
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Kratochvíl J, Plch L, Sebera M, Koriťáková E. Evaluation of untrustworthy journals: Transition from formal criteria to a complex view. LEARNED PUBLISHING 2020. [DOI: 10.1002/leap.1299] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jiří Kratochvíl
- University Campus Library Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic
| | - Lukáš Plch
- University Campus Library Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic
| | - Martin Sebera
- Faculty of Sports Studies Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic
| | - Eva Koriťáková
- Faculty of Medicine Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic
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Abstract
Predatory journals are Open Access journals of highly questionable scientific quality. Such journals pretend to use peer review for quality assurance, and spam academics with requests for submissions, in order to collect author payments. In recent years predatory journals have received a lot of negative media. While much has been said about the harm that such journals cause to academic publishing in general, an overlooked aspect is how much articles in such journals are actually read and in particular cited, that is if they have any significant impact on the research in their fields. Other studies have already demonstrated that only some of the articles in predatory journals contain faulty and directly harmful results, while a lot of the articles present mediocre and poorly reported studies. We studied citation statistics over a five-year period in Google Scholar for 250 random articles published in such journals in 2014 and found an average of 2.6 citations per article, and that 56% of the articles had no citations at all. For comparison, a random sample of articles published in the approximately 25,000 peer reviewed journals included in the Scopus index had an average of 18, 1 citations in the same period with only 9% receiving no citations. We conclude that articles published in predatory journals have little scientific impact.
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Siler K. Demarcating spectrums of predatory publishing: Economic and institutional sources of academic legitimacy. J Assoc Inf Sci Technol 2020. [DOI: 10.1002/asi.24339] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Kyle Siler
- Science Policy Research Unit University of Sussex Brighton UK
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Schalkwyk F. Normative drift and self‐correction in scholarly book publishing: The case of Makerere University. LEARNED PUBLISHING 2020. [DOI: 10.1002/leap.1292] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- François Schalkwyk
- DST‐NRF Centre of Excellence in Scientometrics and STI Policy, Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch South Africa
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Severin A, Low N. Readers beware! Predatory journals are infiltrating citation databases. Int J Public Health 2019; 64:1123-1124. [PMID: 31342093 DOI: 10.1007/s00038-019-01284-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2019] [Accepted: 05/17/2019] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Anna Severin
- Swiss National Science Foundation, Bern, Switzerland.,Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, Mittelstrasse 43, 3012, Bern, Switzerland.,Graduate School of Health Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Nicola Low
- Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, Mittelstrasse 43, 3012, Bern, Switzerland.
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Manley S. On the limitations of recent lawsuits against Sci‐Hub, OMICS, ResearchGate, and Georgia State University. LEARNED PUBLISHING 2019. [DOI: 10.1002/leap.1254] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Stewart Manley
- Faculty of LawUniversity of Malaya Kuala Lumpur 50603 Malaysia
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Abstract
The changing world of scholarly communication and the emerging new wave of ‘Open Science’ or ‘Open Research’ has brought to light a number of controversial and hotly debated topics. Evidence-based rational debate is regularly drowned out by misinformed or exaggerated rhetoric, which does not benefit the evolving system of scholarly communication. This article aims to provide a baseline evidence framework for ten of the most contested topics, in order to help frame and move forward discussions, practices, and policies. We address issues around preprints and scooping, the practice of copyright transfer, the function of peer review, predatory publishers, and the legitimacy of ‘global’ databases. These arguments and data will be a powerful tool against misinformation across wider academic research, policy and practice, and will inform changes within the rapidly evolving scholarly publishing system.
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