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SciPoll 638: Presence of predatory Journals
Biggest red flag for identifying a predatory publisher?
Results
(317 Answers)
Answer Explanations
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-180243I have been repeatedly contacted but have never contact them before
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-288010other also high fees, journal new with only few articles published, not in PubMed, no scientific society behind
- Other (please explain)user-535790Bad English, unknown journal.
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-208008again, almost daily.
- Other (please explain)user-957783The poor language
- Lack of peer review processuser-239098Dear Respected Prof Dr {{NAME}},
Greetings of the day!!
We read with interest your article 'Insert name of one of my publications on osteoarthritis'. Therefore is my distinct pleasure to extend to you a cordial invitation to contribute your esteemed scholarly work to the inaugural issue of 'INTERNATIONAL COSMETIC SURGERY AND DERMATOLOGY'. - Unsolicited email invitationsuser-696369Ungrammatical invitations! You can often tell that the journal is coming out of India or China.
- Poor website qualityuser-412773In reallity is a mix of all teh above. But, the fees from classic jounrals have become a predatory monster also.
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-104996Normally, credible journal outlets will only contact you if you early on contacted them. However, predatory journals send emails any how, inviting you when you have no idea about them.
- Other (please explain)user-688273The wording of the email. This includes terrible English, incorrect grammar, and GREETINGS OF THE DAY!!!
- Lack of peer review processuser-776568The review processes are absent or, at best, deficient and prompt acceptance of the paper
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-45613Reputable journals rarely if ever fish for submissions.
- Poor website qualityuser-477751Often, there is no detailed information on the company such as address, person responsible, company e-mail etc.
- Poor website qualityuser-433063And the fact that sometimes they ask you for articles not related to the field you are working on.
- Other (please explain)user-856876Fake peer review process
- Lack of peer review processuser-523578See above
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-106770Keep receiving invitation despite unsubscribing
- High Publication Feesuser-275661They charge a lot. Some junior staff/studdents are in awe that they can publish and build their CVs without understanding that these publicvations will hinder, not help, their progress in the field.
- Poor website qualityuser-611301Predatory journals have several red flags. Due diligence is very important!
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-674576The predatory journal is relatively easy to spot because of the way they address their emails, poor use of my name and titles. Also, frequently the journal's focus has nothing to do with my area of expertise.
- Other (please explain)user-370736There are several criteria which one can keep into his mind while deciding whether a journal is genuine or predatory:
1. Editor in chief and members of the editor, board are from such countries which have almost negligible contribution in the research.
2. Publication within 48 hours itself is red flag.
3. Claiming international, but published locally.
4. Asking for membership fee, per charges, processing fee, etc - Other (please explain)user-89669well, the worse is when people ask for an article from me that clearly is related to biomedicine for a journal in physics...or vice versa..., or a paper of hematology research (my field) for a journal of obstetrics; or even worse, the mention an editorial that I wrote years ago as the most important contribution and they would like to obtain a similar one....such a crap!
- Other (please explain)user-866827Awkwardly written.
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-998570Continuous emails asking to submit papers
- Other (please explain)user-284209The unsolicited emails are poorly written and of low quality
- Other (please explain)user-358518They sent invitation randomly when your article get publish in good journal, they have poor website where doi link will not work and have poor indexing.
- High Publication Feesuser-778496The APCs, while always exorbitant, are not initially publicized in the email solicitations.
- Lack of peer review processuser-475346Unsolicited emails (especially from journals that publish content completely different from my prior research) and high publication fees are also red flags in my mind
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-400829It is not frequent that a journal invites me to publish a paper on an already-printed paper.
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-284533It's the unsolicited email invitations, very siilar phrasing and email templates (fonts and colour scheme), that alert me. There is also a bit of psychological bullying going on, where they complain that they have very kindly asked me to submit, but I have rudely ignored them.
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-141640The messages are always very similar. It will start by citing one recent published paper and showing interest to its subject.
- High Publication Feesuser-445202Cobrança em franco suíço
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-382369Some jorunals send every day unsolicited invitations. This fact indicates me that they are predatory, although also a high fee for publication is an indication.
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-536513They often use a names very similar to existing reputable journals. Web sites are often from India, etc.
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-938667Every day one or more invitation even though some are in areas of research far different than mine.
- Poor website qualityuser-358384spelling and syntax errors in the email and website are usually clear signs.
- Poor website qualityuser-357032The inconsistency of peer-review process rises only when you accept
- Other (please explain)user-990457Cross reference to predatory lists.
- Lack of peer review processuser-585934Their review time is generally very short and their publications generally have too many errors.
- Lack of peer review processuser-369733The biggest red flag for identifying a predatory publisher is the lack of a legitimate peer review process. Predatory publishers often either do not conduct peer reviews or have a lax and ineffective review process. Legitimate journals prioritize rigorous peer review to ensure the quality and integrity of published research.
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-287804Same as above
- High Publication Feesuser-337025High publication fees
- Other (please explain)user-948023Not being indexed in a trusted database, such as PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus.
- Lack of peer review processuser-957269Very short time to publish a paper
- user-812398Predatory journals lack indexing in relevant basis like Web of Sience, Scopus etc
- Poor website qualityuser-319109Poor quality regarding the request email in terms of wording, formatting, language, and journal topic, which can be far from my area of expertise. In addition, the topic of the requested manuscript does not seem to fit the with the topic of said journal.
- Poor website qualityuser-608413In the website the information about the journal is poor
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-109201Poor English, poor website and High APC all are identity of predatory journals.
- Poor website qualityuser-548458Predatory Journals have poor website or even do not have one.
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-887623Often poorly written from unknown email addresses that try to mirror reputable addresses/sources
- Lack of peer review processuser-309520The members of the Editorial Board are not from reputable institutions.
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-764600Poor use of English or inapproprriate salutations
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-339251One of my students responded to one of these emails and submitted a high quality manuscript on original research. The problem is the journal is not indexed and they appear to own the IP so nothing could be done.
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-689147The emails are unsolicited but also have a very short turn around - practically begging fo ran article.
- Lack of peer review processuser-916060Lack of peer review is a unequivocal evidence that a journal is just out to make money and therefore cares nothing about quality
- Lack of peer review processuser-225569A journal that promises they can publicize your paper in less than a month including the evaluation process is suspicious
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-813332Spelling or grammatical errors. Slightly bizarre journal titles. Groveling requests. Generalized web addresses indicate predatory journal requests.
- Lack of peer review processuser-836889A statement saying that the publication will be fast-tracked
- Poor website qualityuser-685143most of their websites are very poor designed
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-566545A decent journal does not need to solicit submissions
- Other (please explain)user-266855Quality of email invitations and options to submit the manuscript directly via email.
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-497412As I said earlier, I received many unsolicited email invitations to contribute. However, when one checks the journal's credentials, one can see that they are not indexed. Moreover, on reading some of the articles, it is clear that they have not been peer-reviewed or even edited (glaring typos and grammar mistakes).
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-921990The email message are often obvious because they often want you to resubmit a paper that you have already published.
- Other (please explain)user-244325My biggest red flags are usually easy to spot. The emails usually ask me to publish in a special issue whose topic is only vaguely related to my past work and in a field in which I am by no means an expert. They often misspell my name, use my first name instead of my last (i.e. "Dr Firstname") or use the wrong honorific. The emails are full of fawning and usually gramatically-iffy language.
- Lack of peer review processuser-469309no clear objectives or theme in the content
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-193278It's hard to know if it's a predatory journal, however, unsolicited email is a sign but new journals normally send emails to introduce them to prospective authors.
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-797934the email is suallypoorly written
the names are spelled wrong, the usuelly quote a previous publication of yours , the name of the Journal is similar to a legitimate jopurnal with the addition of one or two words - Unsolicited email invitationsuser-616368They flatter you about the high quality of a paper that may not be your best
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-740365The emails are written by 'editors' and often have spelling mistakes, poorly addressed subject heading. They quickly tell you how fast your paper will be published, almost guaranteeing its publication. The next sentence then tells you how much they would charge for this.
- High Publication Feesuser-672631Also unsolicited emails, poor peer review etc.
- Other (please explain)user-821404All of them, and also poor English, invitations to issues or items that are faraway of my expertise field
- Lack of peer review processuser-81297Sometimes, predatory journals offer fast publications (even 24 hours). Fast publications mean not independent reviews. Reviewing a research article requires time.
- Other (please explain)user-730039virtually a 100% acceptance rate
- Other (please explain)user-570468Generally, the content of the email is a giveaway, with Greetings, or mentioning having read our paper X and then inviting for something unrelated.
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-480186I receive daily about 10 - 15 unsoliced e.maikl invitation (although I never agreed my e-mail contact be passed to third parties). For me it is easy to identify a predatory journal because I do not support open access publication. I think open acces was a higly suspitious political decision leading to explosive proliferation of predatory journals and diverting public funds intended to support science to private publishing houses.
- Other (please explain)user-77256Assurance of publication in quick time
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-573537As I wrote above, receiving such unsolicited invitations from a rather unrecognizable scientific source is for me the first red flag.
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-987379When I want to publish, I am looking for the best journals I myself review for or are well known withing ym field. Receiving unsolicited emails requesting for a manuscript is definitely not what I would send my papers to.
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-259085usually get my email address from previsous publications
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-46958Lo he comentado en la anterior respuesta.
- Unsolicited email invitationsuser-327335it is pretty easy to identify, occasionally I will search the journal and it usually comes back as part of the Omics group.
- Poor website qualityuser-864496Their websites are obviously not professional.
- Lack of peer review processuser-197437Lack of credibility
- Lack of peer review processuser-771635There are lots of papers out there that have not gone through a proper review process that may be absolutely wrong but are published for anyone to read anc cite
- Lack of peer review processuser-284769I used to check how long peer-review process takes. On average, if it takes less than 4 weeks from submission to publication, the journal is probably predatory.
user-239098
05/22/2024 09:57Surely even chat GTP could write a better email for them with fewer errors. I wonder if they are badly written so they only get responses from people they can scam like financial phishing emails. They are badly written on purpose to weed out the people who wouldn't fall for scams so they don't waste their time building up the confidence of those who will never give them money. Are these journal similar?
Do they only want people to respond who are new to academic publishing and need their egos stroking. As most of us probably have never responded to an email like this, do we know what the follow-up emails are like? Once you submit a paper do they accept it and then request high APCs, or do they want more for English language editing or proofreading? By then a novice but gullible researcher might try to find the funds as they are just happy their paper has been accepted quickly and they can get it on their CV.