LibGuides: Predatory Publishing: Home

What is Predatory Publishing?

Predatory publishing is a growing issue in the field of academic publishing. It is an unethical business practice as the predatory publishers do not provide rigorous peer review, manuscript processing, editing or other publishing services. As a result, predatory publishers may damage the reputation of the researchers and adversely impact their academic careers. In the long run, predatory publishing perpetuates bad research and threatens the integrity of scholarly communication.

"Predatory journals and publishers are entities that prioritize self-interest at the expense of scholarship and are characterized by false or misleading information, deviation from best editorial and publication practices, a lack of transparency, and/or the use of aggressive and indiscriminate solicitation practices" (Grudniewicz et al., 2019).

Why avoid predatory publishers?

The following table describes the main ethical issues posed by predatory journals (Ferris & Winker, 2017):

Issue	Elaboration
Misrepresentation	Predatory journals distort who they are and what services they offer
Lack of editorial and publishing standards and practices	Predatory journals lack standards and best practices as established by the scholarly publishing community, which improve the quality and ethics of published work
Academic deception	Authors misrepresent their scholarly effort by choosing to publish in predatory journals
Research and funding wasted	Research published in predatory journals may not receive the recognition it deserves and may become inaccessible, hence the effort and risk of research as well as funding are wasted
Lack of archived content	Predatory journals do not archive their content in third party sites making it inaccessible in the future
Undermining confidence in research literature	Predatory journals undermine faith that readers and the public have in research literature