A to Z about Fake/Predatory Journals : Tips for scholars

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There are lakhs of journals available online and we may often get confused which one to choose. Many a times researchers end up publishing in a predatory/fake journals for many reasons. Here is how to choose wisely. This article will help you how to identify a scholarly journal over a predatory/fake journal. 

A predatory journal bluffs the readers with these basic characteristics :

Peer review: Claims of making a thorough peer review process, but there is no evidence that any peer review is carried out. There is no evidence of selectivity or screening based on editorial or quality checks as all submissions appear to be accepted. As well as advertising peer review, these journals often offer very rapid peer review times of under a week or rapid peer review service where additional payments can be made for a faster decision.

Editors/ Editorial board: The editorial boards of deceptive journals often feature people who have not consented to be on the board. The members may not be discoverable at the affiliations listed in their board entries. For publishers with multiple journals, individuals may be featured on the boards of a large number of titles, some of which may not be in similar fields.

Affiliation: Similar to the co-opting of individuals, predatory journals may also state or imply they are affiliated with prestigious institutions and organisations, without their knowledge or consent.

Indexing databases: Predatory journals often attempt to give the impression they are indexed in the key journal indexes Web of Science and Scopus, through outright false claims or by deceptive means. Predatory databases share names very similar to the official mainstream sites such as Index Scientific Journals, which can use the acronym ISI to match the real ISI Web of Science. Therefore, a journal can claim to be listed in ISI, but refer to the pay-per-listing site, rather than the real site (which is free but has strict inclusion criteria). 

These databases likely use Google Scholar to draw their citation metrics from – if they base them on anything at all. Their sources and methods are not usually explained or transparent. Inclusion in these databases is granted in exchange for a fee, with an ‘Impact Factor’ provided for an additional fee, so there is no barrier to inclusion other than a fee. Some journals use these databases to list themselves and present as being indexed in prestigious, valuable scientific databases. For example, presenting sites such as ResearchGate and Mendeley as indexing databases, or claiming Thomson Reuter Researcher IDs, Scopus Researcher IDs and ORCiD accounts in the name of a journal.

Journal Metrics: The deceptive practices around metrics follow a similar theme to index databases. Through receiving metric awards from predatory databases, journals can make claims of having high ‘Impact Factors’. It is important to note that there is only one legitimate ‘Impact Factor’ - the Journal Impact Factor (JIF), awarded to journals indexed in the Web of Science, owned by Clarivate Analytics.

Deceptive journals may also have very high self-citation rates to inflate their Google Scholar citation metrics. There are also journals indexed in Scopus and Web of Science that succeed in being indexed with relatively low citation counts, and then display large increases in citations, all powered through self-citations. These are visible in the Scopus SJR database.

Location: The locations or offices of deceptive journals or publishers are quite often not mentioned anywhere on a website. If they are mentioned, the address is usually in the United States or UK. However, the Editorial Boards and author locations of the individuals listed in the journal site indicate other locations. In some cases, where postcodes/zipcodes are provided, these can be put into Google Maps and searched and can yield surprising or amusing results.

Identifying Predatory Journals: Some things to look out for
1.Poor and unprofessional looking website
2.Charging exorbitant fees for publication of articles
3.Lack of peer-review or editorial oversight.
4.Listing academics as members of editorial boards without their permission or listing fake scholars as members of editorial boards or authors.
5.The journal defines no clear publication date.
6.The journal’s contact email address is non-professional and non-journal affiliated (e.g. @gmail.com or @yahoo.com).
7.The journal sends open calls/unsolicited emails to many authors to invite them to submit papers to them.
8.Fake, non-existent, or misrepresented impact factors.
9.The journal is not read or known by your colleagues or peers.

Tactic	How to Recognize
Solicitation	Suspect journals aggressively solicit scholars to submit papers.  The solicitation may come as spam or individual emails. Legitimate journals usually do not solicit authors but instead have the authors contact them. The journal agrees to publish your article for a fee before reviewing it.
Peer Review	A claim that a journal is peer reviewed is not enough. Almost all predatory journals claim to be peer reviewed.  The stated time for peer review is extremely short. You are asked whom you would like to review your work.
Impact Factors	Be wary of journals that cite bogus impact factors, such as the GIF ( Global Impact Factor), Index Copernicus Value, Citefactor, or the UIF (Universal Impact Factor). Some may falsify legitimate impact factors. Impact Factors can be verified via Web of Science, Dimensions or Google.
Editorial Board	Members of the editorial board lack qualifications in the field. Different  journals by the same publisher have the same editorial board. Predatory journals will sometimes  solicit well-known scholars to join their boards in order to lend credibility to their journal but don't let them make decisions. (How you would make this discovery even with good due diligence is hard to imagine.) Listing academics as members of editorial boards without their permission and not allowing academics to resign from editorial boards.
Indexing	The journal is not indexed in the major indexes in the field as well as general indexes, even though it might claim to be. Some journals falsely claim to be indexed by Thomson Reuters.
Watch lists	The journal is listed on Beall's List of Predatory Journals, Cabell's Predatory Journals list, or other watchlist.
Other Factors	The journal is difficult to locate in library catalogs, i.e. few major libraries subscribe to it.  The scope is overly broad and/or does not fit well with your research. Publication frequency is irregular or not stated. May have the same or similar name to a legitimate journal. The former is characteristic of hijacked journals. The email address is often non-professional, e.g.,  (@yahoo.com, ao.com or @gmail.com).

Risks involved in publishing in fake/predatory journals :

• Publishing in a predatory journal could damage your credibility and the credibility of your research.
• Predatory publishers have no interest in helping to withdraw your article and may use any request as leverage to charge further fees.
• Your profile will be exploited eg. by adding your name to lists of editors, even if you haven’t agreed.
• You lose the opportunity to publish your research in a credible journal.
• Monetary costs for the author/ institutions.
• Reputational costs for the author/ institutions.
• Negative impact on ranking and research assessment.
• No assurance of longevity of the paper.
• Possible legal consequences