The Importance of the Right Journal
Beware of Phishing Expeditions
By Deborah S. Adelman, PhD, RN, NE-BC and Laura Kay Wood, DNP, RN, CMCN Professors, Graduate Nursing Program at Purdue University Global
“What! Are you kidding me? Pay to publish our accepted manuscript?” was how one of us reacted to a co-researcher telling them that the accepted manuscript would cost $600 to publish, something we had not been told when we submitted it and it was initially accepted. As we knew, there are predatory journals that snare authors this way. What we did not know was that legitimate international journals do not accept ads and have to charge authors to publish. We learned this after a nasty reply to the journal editor that we did not need to pay to be published and we wanted our copyright back. We did get the manuscript published elsewhere in the end, but with egg on our face.
The profession of nursing embraces the pursuit of scholarly writing, a standard of incorporating evidence and addressing bias, in a clear and concise manner to facilitate communication and critical thinking (Ayala et al., 2022). The goal of scholarship and scholarly writing promotes the dissemination of knowledge ensuring the continuity of quality patient care and effective information sharing among healthcare providers. The development of nursing as a discipline depends on this accurate and complete dissemination of information to use in practice, information and knowledge that are found within a reputable academic publishing community, considered trustworthy as the result of a vetted and verified best publication process. For a researcher or academic embracing publication, it is important to recognize what identifies as a legitimate journal to avoid submission to a predatory journal which can impact the legitimacy of their work, compromise its usefulness, and lead to the further scrutiny of past publications (Turale, 2023) as well as hinder future publication.
The issue of predatory journals is not a new one. In 2015, Shen and Bjork, in a seminal systematic review of the literature, concluded that 8,000 predatory journals collectively publish 420,000 papers every year, nearly a fifth of the scientific community's annual output of 2.5 million papers. The rise in the number of articles in predatory journals since then has been astounding, going from 53,000 to 420,000 between 2010 and 2014 representing an almost 800% increase. If there were 8,000 predatory journals in 2014, it is currently estimated at over 17,000+ predatory academic journals (Cabells, n.d.).
The rise in the number of articles in predatory journals has been astounding, going from 53,000 to 420,000 between 2010 and 2014 representing an almost 800% increase.
What is a Predatory Journal
Predatory journals are deceptive, fraudulent, scientific-in-name-only journals marketed to authors through exploitative and unethical strategies and techniques which ultimately impact the validity of research results and the dissemination of knowledge, innovation, and best practice in nursing or any field. At the present time, predatory journals are considered one of the “greatest threats to science” (Duc et al., 2020, p. 318) affecting both novice and respectable researchers and authors alike who are either not aware they exist or in a hurry to be published. It is imperative that nurses understand how these journals work and how to identify them.
Trying to help all academics and students, Beall, a librarian at the University of Colorado in Denver, created a blog which listed predatory publishers between 2012 and 2019 (Elmore & Weston, 2020). Since the advent of Beall’s website, more tools and websites in support of the identification of predatory journals have been constructed including several by nursing journal publishers. Today, predatory journals can be found in reputable websites such as PubMed, PubMed Central, MEDLINE, and Scopus (Duc et al., 2020) making it even harder to identify whether a journal is legit or not.
The impact of predatory journals is a serious hazard to scientific research and not only negatively affects a researcher’s and author’s credibility, but also may impact an author’s or researcher’s choice of design and methodology when content is used in a research study or article that is discovered in a predatory journal that has published fabricated results or disseminated “knowledge” that has not been vetted through peer reviewers. Even genuine published work when presented in a predatory journal may render it useless to the scholarly community and lost to an audience dedicated to the dissemination and integration of best evidence-based practice (Duc et al., 2020; Elmore & Weston, 2020; Turale, 2023) because of the doubt a predatory journal creates about the legitimacy of the content.
A predatory journal’s main goal is profit, not scholarship, no matter the means or the impact upon scientific progression or a researcher’s or author’s reputation. Revenue is obtained through sending unsolicited emails requesting editorial board or journal reviewer participation as well as requests for manuscripts for upcoming issues or conferences. Using the names and reputations of these board members and peer reviewers can fool the prospective author or researcher into believing the journal is legitimate. The objective is to deceive with false claims and fast acceptance for publication for a fee without providing robust, if any, peer-review or editorial services. There is no check of any of the methodological elements used or statistical analysis of research results in the manuscript (Duc et al., 2020; Elmore & Weston, 2020; Turale, 2023).
It takes time for a reputable journal to go through the peer-review process with subject-matter experts validating that what is published is credible, reliable, and valid.
How to Identify a Predatory Journal
It is important to thoroughly investigate a journal that is new to the prospective researcher or author and not simply rely on the testimonial of the journal editor or website. There are several ways to identify a predatory journal. These include: evaluating a journal’s manuscript submission practices/author guidelines for depth and clear instructions, reviewing archived articles in past issues of the journal, and evaluating the journal’s website (Duc et al., 2020). One can also look for the impact factor (IF) of the journal which measures how many citations an article has over a year in other journals as well as the original journal. Clarivate Analytics, a company that collects bibliometrics and scientometrics, publishes the IF for any journal that is listed in the Science Citation Index Expanded® (SCIE) and Social Sciences Citation Index® (SSCI). Generally, an IF of at least 1 to 3 is considered good and indicates a trustworthy journal (The Board, 2016).
Journal manuscript submission features that should be considered questionable can be noted in their author guidelines and include such things as missing withdrawal or retraction policies, lack of information pertaining to digital preservation, submission requests that are sent through a personal email account, an unclear series of steps during the manuscript writing process, quick peer-review processes, missing constructive feedback, and/or article processing charges (APCs) that are unclear or introduced to the researcher after the manuscript has been accepted for publication and cannot be found on the submission website (Duc et al., 2020).
Predatory concerns that can be identified in archived journals are perceptible in the presence of copyright violations, the lack of implementation software to address plagiarism, journal titles and published articles not connected to the aims and scope outlined within the journal, digital object identifiers (dois) that cannot be confirmed within https://www.doi.org, and the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) within the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) cannot be validated. Other issues include identification of multiple linguistic and grammatical typos, as well as front page logos and images that are blurry or uneven (Duc et al., 2020). Journal website predatory detection features are noticeable when a logo of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) is present but no such affiliation exists, there is deliberate misrepresentation, there are unqualified editorial board members, or there are advertisements to publisher-sponsored conferences are either mismatched or not associated with academia. Other clues to watch for include spelling and grammatical errors, indexing reported as being by reputable databases appears fabricated, and fabricated lists of published articles claiming to have a high impact factor are listed on the publisher’s website (Duc et al., 2020).
Characteristics of a Predatory Journal
How to Avoid Predatory Journals
Combating the prevalence and impact of predatory journals starts with the awareness that predatory journals do indeed exist and not every request to publish in an unknown journal is something to be excited about. Prior to a manuscript submission, it is the responsibility of the author and researcher who must decide whether a journal is trustworthy and should take the time to learn how to identify a predatory journal and scrutinize a journal’s website (The InterAcademy Partnership, 2022). Being vigilant, practicing due diligence to minimize risk, participation in robust academic and publishing training and awareness programs, the incorporation of resources such as the assistance of a librarian who has the training and resources to identify predatory journals, and consultation with researchers who have a well-established publishing history all provide an approach toward avoiding manuscript submissions to predatory journals (The InterAcademy Partnership, 2022; Turale, 2023). The following table features characteristics of predatory journals (Duc et al., 2020).
The Phishing Expedition
There are some pointers to be aware of related to “phishing expeditions” that predatory journal editors can take to lure one in. One of the biggest errors is to search on one’s own and land on their website. These sites have malware that can garner information about ISP and email addresses. This information may be used to send emails asking one to attend conferences they sponsor or to publish in their journal. Most conference sponsors will publish what is called a symposium, a compilation of all presentations in the conference. Presenters receive a free copy of the symposium.
However, with a predatory journal sponsorship, the presenters are often asked for a fee to guarantee publication of their presentations in the symposium or in the predatory journal. The presenter may be asked for a fee to obtain a copy of the symposium. None of these are how a legitimate conference sponsor would proceed. Be aware that this may vary with international conferences, because they do require a fee due to not receiving paid advertising and their costs need to be covered somehow (Leonard et al., 2021).
Conclusion
In the end, one should not take shortcuts to speed up publishing. The processes have been honed over decades to ensure that predatory practices that lack transparency and undermine public trust in and research integrity of the author and researcher do not result in ruined reputations and incorrect data and information are not disseminated (The InterAcademy Partnership, 2022). It takes time for a reputable journal to go through the peer review process with subject matter experts validating that what is published is credible, reliable, and valid. TN
This article is published with permission of ANA-Illinois and was printed in the March 2024 Nursing Voice publication.
Deborah S. Adelman, PhD, RN, NE-BC
Deborah S. Adelman, PhD, RN, NE-BC has been a nurse educator and professor of nursing for 26 years. She is the program lead for non-nurse practitioner Master of Science in Nursing courses in the Graduate Nursing Program at Purdue University Global. Adelman oversees numerous innovations in curriculum, including course revisions, creating new courses, and supporting faculty in these areas. She also mentors faculty who wish to do research, and has assisted five faculty in publishing articles in peer-reviewed journals.
Laura Kay Wood, DNP, RN, CMCN
Laura Kay Wood, DNP, RN, CMCN teaches various graduate nursing courses, with a special emphasis on nursing education and leadership within the Graduate Nursing Program at Purdue University Global. She is a subject-matter expert for the nurse educator track and currently chairs multiple committees in service to the University, profession, and public. She also works as a nurse consultant. Prior to joining Purdue Global, Wood held roles as a wellness coordinator, court advocate, and pediatric nurse.
REFERENCES
Ayala, F., DeBoard, E., Waldrop, J., Pereira, K., Oermann, M. H., & Silva, S, G. (2022). Dissemination of doctor of nursing practice project findings: Benefits and challenges associated with publishing in healthcare journals. Nursing Outlook, 70, 846-855.nc. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2022.07.011
The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. (2016). Measuring your impact: Impact factor, citation analysis, and other metrics: Journal Impact Factor (IF). https://researchguides.uic.edu/if/impact#:~:text=About%20Journal%20Impact&text=The%20impact%20factor%20(IF)%20is,times%20its%20articles%20are%20cited
Cabells. (n.d.). What is journalytics? https://learn.cabells.com/external/manual/journalytics-academic/article/what-is-journalytics?p=45bf0b37eb068f380076713fd7aa06de5f2ec699708e4e23b6df864634f8167a
Duc, N. M., Hiep, D. V., Thong, P. M., Zunic, L, Zildzic, M., Donev, D., Jankovic, S. M., Hozo, I, & Masic, I. (2020). Predatory open access journals are indexed in reputable databases: A revising issue or an unsolved problem. Review/Medical Archives, 74(4), 318-322. https://doi.org/10.5455/medarh.2020.74.318-322
Elmore, S. A., & Weston, E. H. (2020). Predatory journals: What they are and how to avoid them. Toxicologic Pathology, 48(4), 607-610. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192623320920209
The InterAcademy Partnership. (2022, March). Combating predatory academic journals and conferences. (Summary Report in English). https://www.interacademies.org/publication/predatory-practices-summary-English
Leonard, M., Stapleton, S., Collins, P., Selfe, T. K., & Cataldo, T. (2021). Ten simple rules for avoiding predatory publishing scams. PLoS Computational Biology, 17(9), e1009377. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009377
Turale, S. (2023). Protect your scientific reputation: Beware of predatory journals! Nursing Practice Today, 10(2), 81-83. https://doi.org/10.18502/npt.v10i2.12828
