Predatory Journals and Publishers ****************************************************************************************** * ****************************************************************************************** Predatory journals / publishers misuse the paid open journals model and benefit from publi "OSCIEN-39.html#3"] without complying with established standards of scientific publishing. The phenomenon of predatory journals and publishers is most known for the American librari and his list, who published the names of fraudulent subjects on his website Scholarly OA. has long served as a useful tool for identifying low-quality journals and publishers. Howe 2017, J. Beall deleted his blog. ****************************************************************************************** * Characteristics of a predatory journal / publisher ****************************************************************************************** Typically, predatory journals/publishers show several of the following characteristics: • Peer review is only formal (fictitious) or is missing entirely. • They accept any text in return for payment, regardless of its quality and contribution. • They do not comply with established publication standards and ethics. • They misuse the titles of prestigious and well-established journals (a predator often on word order or adds/deletes a word) or choose general and vague titles without any specif particular field (an exception are so-called megajournals – e.g. PLoS ONE – which are mu journals otherwise complying with common standards). • They do not provide specific contact details (often only a non-personalized e-mail or a is available), they do not provide clear information about publication fees, peer review processes, etc. • They provide a list of fake names of the editorial board members or, conversely, names o prominent scientists, but without their knowledge and consent. • They state the Impact Factor and/or the SJR, despite the journal not having the metrics being indexed in the Journal Citation Reports – JCR [ URL "http://pez.cuni.cz/prehled/zd lang=en&id=781"] and/or Scopus [ URL "https://ezdroje.cuni.cz/prehled/zdroj.php?lang=en& • They present fictitious quality indicators (e.g. Universal Impact Factor, Global Impact Impact Factor, etc.). • They provide false information about indexation in established databases and indexes, or indexed in services which do not carry out any content quality checks before indexing a CrossRef, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, etc.). • They aggressively and intrusively reach out to potential authors and call for them to pu participate in a conference such as key-note speaker) via unsolicited e-mails. • The composition of an editorial board of predatory publishers is often the same or almos more than one journal. • Predatory journals are often strikingly similar in appearance and content of their webpa To learn more about the criteria of a predatory journal and publisher, see Jeffrey Beal's Criteria for Determining Predatory Open-Access Publishers [ URL "https://beallslist.weebly uploads/3/0/9/5/30958339/criteria-2015.pdf"] (copy, original deleted along with the Schola ****************************************************************************************** * How to avoid predatory journals / publishers? ****************************************************************************************** Publishing in journals of questionable quality conflicts with the Code of Ethics of Charle [ URL "https://cuni.cz/UKEN-731.html"] , damages your reputation and the reputation of CU. membership in predator editorial boards or quoting predatory articles sheds a bad light on their work. If you are interested in an open access journal, we recommend that you evaluate whether it journal before submitting the article, using the following steps: • For unknown or new journals / publishers, pay attention to quality verification, careful whether the journal / publisher shows characteristics of predatory journals/publishers [ "OSCIEN-36.html#2"] . • On the ISSN Portal [ URL "https://portal.issn.org/"] , check whether the journal actuall is the journal’s ISSN and its official website. • Check the information provided on the pages of the journal (e.g. whether there is an ins as a publisher, whether information on publication fees is given, who is a member of the board, etc.). • Check if the journal actually has a reported impact factor (in Journal Citation Reports "https://ezdroje.cuni.cz/prehled/zdroj.php?id=781"] ) or SJR (in Scopus [ URL "https://e prehled/zdroj.php?id=201"] ). • Check that the journal is indexed in the databases it claims to be on its website (acces via the CU Electronic Resources Portal [ URL "https://eresources.cuni.cz"] ). • See if any of your colleagues have published in the journal and ask about personal exper The website Think.Check.Submit [ URL "https://thinkchecksubmit.org/"] . offers further ste trustworthiness of a journal. If you are unsure of the credibility of your chosen journal, contact OA Central Support [ "OSCIEN-14.html#1"] or consult your supervisor, faculty library, or field colleague. ****************************************************************************************** * Useful resources ****************************************************************************************** GROFOVÁ, Šárka. Predatory journals and open access: predators in the world of scientific p [online]. Praha: Ústřední knihovna Univerzity Karlovy, 2020 [cit. 2020-04-06]. Available a zenodo.org/record/3738003 [ URL "https://zenodo.org/record/3738003"]