Fake science journals undermine research
David Moher and Larissa Shamseer share some tips for spotting them.
Recently, Citizen reporter Tom Spears reported anew on “fake” scientific journals. At The Ottawa Hospital’s Centre for Journalology (publication science), we use the term “illegitimate publishing entities” for these journals. The harsh term is warranted given that they are not in accordance with accepted publishing standards. These entities are giving legitimate open-access journals a run for their money. They claim to have many of the features of real openaccess publishing and peer review, but our research suggests neither is likely true.
This is a problem because there are thousands of these entities publishing hundreds of thousands of articles, making millions. Researchers are inundated daily with invitations from these entities, and some likely do not realize these are not real journals. These entities promise rapid publication, something a legitimate journal would almost never do (whether or not an article is published typically depends on the outcome of peer review).
Faculty members in most universities are under pressure to publish as much as possible to help secure promotion and tenure. Publishing in these illegitimate entities may seem to offer a short cut to boosting their CVs. You may wonder why some researchers make such poor choices. One possibility is that they are simply unaware of the low quality and credibility of these journals.
Researchers used to be able to cross-reference a black list called Beall’s List, curated by librarian Jeffrey Beall. On the list were the names of entities Beall considered “predatory,” based on over 50 criteria. However, the criteria were inconsistently applied and, as our recent research uncovered, not evidencebased. Sometimes legitimate journals were on the list. In January, the list was removed without reasons given.
What can researchers do now? An important first step is to try to distinguish between the illegitimate and real scientific journals. Perhaps we can find evidence-based criteria to help researchers avoid submitting articles to these illegitimate entities. We’ve just published the results of our investigation and suggest several “red flags” that researchers can look for.
After examining the websites of hundreds of legitimate journals and their illegitimate counterparts, we found that illegitimate entities often look unprofessional (images are fuzzy and/or knocked off ); promote fake metrics (some of which can be bought); and do not appear well-versed in ethical policies and standards. They also advertise substantially cheaper author processing charges (median US$100) compared to legitimate open access journals (median $1,865) and subscriptionhybrid ones( median $3,000).
We hope that this study will help researchers avoid illegitimate publishers. But governments, research funders, academic institutes and legitimate journals also must do their part to establish a more rigorous and fair system for publishing academic research.
The world of academic publishing is rapidly changing, and the societal implications are huge. What if you took part in a research study that was then buried in the pages of an illegitimate entity, never to see the light of day? Future researchers could not build on this work, and health decisions and care might suffer because of it.
Our Centre for Journalology is dedicated to improving the scientific publishing system so that research results are more available to improve health. In addition to investigating illegitimate publishers, we are also focused on several other issues. We want to find ways to improve the reproducibility of research by getting researchers to pre-register their studies, and develop writing tools such as reporting guidelines to help authors be more transparent about their research. We also focus on better training for scientific editors and implementing more responsible measurement of academic potential, productivity and success when assessing faculty for promotion and tenure, rather than bean-counting.
Our publications officer — the first in the world — helps Ottawa Hospital researchers publish in a rigorous, timely and transparent manner, so that the results can be optimally used to improve health and patient care. We hope our work will make an impact not only in Ottawa, but around the world.