A spooooooky post about predatory journals for this Halloween season.

Predatory publications are not concerned with writing quality (or even coherence), and thus also do not care about writing tools (although we could, perhaps, include generative AI as a tool that replaces those used by human authors). The rules change pretty radically as the predatory version does away with nearly all of the rules in our legitimate academic publishing model and replaces them with rules related to paying for publication (via article processing charges, listed as APCs in the model), and replacing the ethical framework from one of acknowledgment and indebtedness to a capitalist quid pro quo—a pay-to-play model.

The division of labor no longer includes editors (at least in terms of individuals who perform editing; there are individuals listed as editors but their main purpose is to facilitate the transaction of money for publication). Similarly, the object of the publication is solely career advancement (on the part of the author) and profit making (on the part of the publisher); advancement of knowledge is no longer a concern.

Predatory publishing is a problem for all academic researchers and scholars (although it appears more prevalent in STEM fields). The development of generative AI applications has made it far easier for unscrupulous actors to create fake journals and to populate both fake and legitimate journals with fictional research that sounds appropriately crafted, as the grammar and mechanics are quite good.

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You may want to check a brand new (and hilariously titled) journal called Reviews: The Journal of Journal Reviews, started by a bunch of really smart and thoughtful librarians who understood and disagreed with the take-down approach of Beall’s List and wanted to create a more careful way of analyzing journals on their publishing practices.

You might also refer to the Directory of Open-Access Journals, which we will discuss in more detail in a later post. And you can also use Think, Check, Submit, which provides a free, downloadable checklist that allows you to cross-check the credibility and viability of a journal yourself! Don’t fall into the fear-hole of predatory publishing! —Publishing Digital Scholarship