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Scholarly Publishing Guide

Information to help faculty and students decide how to disseminate their research and track their impact

Predatory publishing

“(Publishers/journals) … that unprofessionally abuse the author-pays publishing model for their own profit.” 
--Jeffrey Beall, Librarian, University of Colorado 

 

Signs of a predatory publisher/journal

  • Spamming researchers with invitations to publish 
  • Misleading info re impact measures, indexing, location 
  • Short review process
  • Poor website presentation e.g. spelling and grammar errors
  • Hijacking legitimate journals
  • Aims and scope, policies ambiguous/not clearly stated

Scope

  • Estimates vary greatly depending on criteria, sampling
  • Between 4,000-8,000 predatory journals; mostly in India, elsewhere in Asia​
  • Estimated size of market $32-$74M USD​
  • Between 165,000-420,000 "predatory" articles in 2014, versus 53,000 in 2010
  • 900+ publishers in 2016 versus 18 in 2011