Predatory journals require publication fees or APC (article processing charges). They justify that since the Journal is Open Access, they need authors to pay. That is not the actual reason. Predatory journals simply want to make money. Legitimate journals do not charge anything except when an author will choose Open Access. The reason for this is that the author retains the copyright to his work or article.
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Let's clarify certain terms first.
1. What is a predatory journal?
Most universities require their faculty to publish before getting tenure or promotion. The chance of getting published in an ISI/Scopus-indexed academic journal depends on the nature and reputation of the journal. Top journals have an acceptance rate of between 5 to 20%. What predatory journals do is get money from academics who are told to pay from as little as 25 to as high as 1,000 dollars after the paper is accepted for publication.
2. What Predatory Journals do?
Predatory journals, as the word suggests, prey on academics who feel the urgency of getting published. Usually, these publications are run by two to three people. They can put the names of unsuspecting professors in their editorial board but the review process is non-existent or mediocre at best. Results are sent after a week or two. Legitimate journals release decisions within three to six months.
3. What is the problem?
The problem is that if a paper is published without correct scientific vetting, then it has no contribution to human knowledge nor to any body of work in a particular field. What makes things worse is that it is not just a matter of bad writing, the whole process is fraudulent. Over time, papers in predatory journals are not read nor cited.
4. What can be done?
Universities and colleges should not pay APCs nor allocate funds for publication fees. The research arm of any university can actually identify legitimate publishers, e.g. Springer, Sage, Taylor and Francis, Oxford University Press, Harvard University Press, Philosophy Documentation Center, among others. The incentive should go to the author, not to fraudsters.
5. Where to publish?
This does not mean that academics should only publish in top indexed journals. There are local and international journals of good standing but charge no fees. If you are not confident enough yet but truly seek to develop your craft or expertise by gaining some experience first, then you can start by submitting to local journals or even to your in-house university journals.
6. Has it become a habit?
For the most part, it has become a habit because of the pressure to publish. Publishing in a journal is an academic undertaking. It is not meant to secure one's economic well-being. But since teachers cannot do anything about the publish or perish culture, they are tempted and are lured by predatory journals.
7. What is wrong?
There is something wrong with the system. There are people in administrative positions both in institutions of higher learning and the government who supervise tertiary education who themselves are without solid intellectual work to show. They, however, use their position to enforce a policy that is neither helping the teacher nor improving the quality of college education.
8. How to detect predatory journals?
Most predatory journals usually send emails inviting people to submit manuscripts. They also promise immediate acceptance and there are some who say that you can get your paper published in only ten days. They mention indexing on their websites but mature scholars recommend that you must look into the impact factor and the overall reputation of the publisher.
- Christopher Ryan Maboloc, PhD