Questions tagged [disreputable-publishers]

For questions about publishers that are reputed to engage in unethical and/or dishonest practices.

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19 votes
2 answers
9k views

After my abstract was accepted I learned that the journal is predatory. How can I protect my abstract?

I submitted an abstract to a journal that is on the predatory list of publishers. It has been accepted within hours, but I only now learned that publishing there involves fees and that the journal is ...
  • 341
0 votes
0 answers
47 views

Is the SAI Organization's Computing Conference a scam? [duplicate]

I'm currently a senior in Computer Science and currently working on my graduation thesis, which has some new results that our supervisor encourages us to write a paper. A senior in our lab recommended ...
4 votes
3 answers
290 views

How should one react and respond when reading questionable publications in highly-regarded conference proceedings?

I am writing to ask for the community's advice in both reacting (regulating my own thoughts) and responding (whether worth the time to respond at all) to situations involving questionable publications....
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20 votes
3 answers
6k views

What can be done when a professor from reputable institute asks me to publish in a predatory journal?

So, I've received what was in many respects a perfectly normal spam message of the form; Due to your recent publication [title of my paper] you are invited to contribute a chapter to a book on [topic ...
  • 6,886
1 vote
0 answers
82 views

Is the Journal of Asian Health a predatory journal? [duplicate]

I recently had a paper accepted to the Journal of Asian Health. Their editorial team seems to consist of one professor, and it seems that they just published their first volume in 2021. However, they ...
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4 votes
1 answer
199 views

Is it acceptable to cite good papers published in predatory journals? [duplicate]

I am facing a little bit of a conundrum. I am currently writing a research paper in a pretty niche industry field and I am going through a literature review. During this process, I have found a ...
20 votes
1 answer
2k views

Should I do peer-review for a predatory conference? [duplicate]

As a first, I recently received an invitation to peer review for a predatory (or at least shady) conference - in contrast to the tons of unsolicited invitations to publish papers with their journals ...
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1 vote
1 answer
312 views

Does the Tech Industry outside Academia know which Journals are predatory and which aren't?

The question is pretty simple: Are HR/interviewers/recruiters outside of academia who parses through your CV/resume, aware of which journals are predatory (say, from Beall's List) and which are not (...
0 votes
1 answer
353 views

Effects of having a few publications in predatory journals in the beginning of my research journey?

The question might feel a little common out here, but allow me to explain more. I am a Junior Year CS Student and in my early days of getting involved in publishing conference papers, research ...
9 votes
3 answers
1k views

Is the review process at MDPI fair to reviewers? [duplicate]

I was asked to review for an MDPI journal and realized while requesting to extend the deadline for my review that the editor at MDPI intended to send review requests to several reviewers, to gather ...
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6 votes
1 answer
520 views

Is it ethical to obliquely cite articles published by a predatory publisher?

There's a recent article published in Research Evaluation analyzing MDPI's self-citation rates. The author argues that MDPI's self-citation rate is anomalously high relative to leading journals in the ...
  • 115k
1 vote
0 answers
36 views

How to identify a legitimate journal from a fake journal? [duplicate]

I know using Google Scholar metrics we can get an awareness about legitimate journals, but there are some journals or conferences papers not stated in the Google metrics. Hence I want to know how to ...
6 votes
1 answer
425 views

My supervisor often forwards me predatory submission invitations, how can I react appropriately?

My supervisor (a professor and head of a research institute) is otherwise very competent, accomplished and a well respected and renowned expert in his field. Yet, he keeps on forwarding me emails with ...
  • 15.5k
73 votes
14 answers
15k views

How is it possible that [insert known crackpot] has articles published in Peer-Reviewed Journals?

Note: This question is intended to be a generic version of something that gets asked occasionally on this site. I apologize for making it overly-contrived, but it's intended to be a generic template ...
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51 votes
3 answers
10k views

Why do publishing scams use "lҽttҽr ѕubstitυtҽs"?

I get plenty of scam mail, but the scam mail from predatory journals has a unique habit of using odd substitutes for normal roman letters. For example; You Are Inᴠіtҽd to Pυbliѕհ Your Original ...
  • 6,886
0 votes
0 answers
202 views

How to check if a conference is "indexed" or "fake"? [duplicate]

I submitted my paper to a conference. Based on a previous accepted submission, the conference response seems suspicious, not to mention that gmail marked their email as "suspicious mail". ...
  • 41
1 vote
1 answer
11k views

Is it worth publishing a book chapter through InTechOpen open-access publishing? [closed]

There is already a post on A.SE about the InTechOpen platform, which is currently listed as a predatory open-access journal. That question is 3 years old and since then the platform has changed a lot, ...
  • 1,266
11 votes
2 answers
2k views

Is a seemingly decent paper with a citation to a poor article from predatory journal a concern?

I am interested in citing a paper. This paper has ~30 citations from others, which is respectable and indicates that a fair number of people have also found it worth discussing. However, a fairly ...
0 votes
1 answer
530 views

Can a predatory journal have a quite high Impact factor?

A journal from MDPI is ranked 114 out 272 in its category according to Web of Science Journal Citation Reports. Can it still be a predatory journal? Can a predatory journal obtain an impact factor at ...
6 votes
1 answer
384 views

Can a Scopus journal be fake/predatory?

I get "spam" emails advertising journals listed in Scopus. Can a Scopus journal be fake/predatory? Or does Scopus has enough strict conditions to list only reputable journals? Or do spammers ...
  • 1,985
24 votes
4 answers
10k views

How to make sure that a conference is not a scam when you are invited as a speaker?

I received an invitation from Neuroscience & Brain Disorders (NBD 2021) conference to present my work as an honorable speaker. My research interests are related to the topics of this conference ...
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1 vote
1 answer
2k views

Are the conferences organized by WASET legit or some type of scam? [duplicate]

Searching through websites dedicated to collect upcoming scientific conferences, I have stumbled upon a lot of similar-sounding conferences around the world (e.g., see here), all organized through the ...
  • 628
23 votes
4 answers
6k views

Should I tell a colleague that he's serving as an editor for a predatory journal?

A colleague of mine, who I regard scientifically, just invited me to submit an article to a special issue of a journal which I consider predatory. I consider this journal predatory because its ...
  • 1,846
0 votes
1 answer
231 views

Should I publish in a second rate journal published by a maybe disreputable publisher?

I've been invited to write an article for a special issue of an open access journal. According to the prospective guest editor, the editors say that “All papers invited by the guest editor will be ...
8 votes
2 answers
616 views

A journal keeps requesting reviews after I have declined any more

I recently received an invitation to review two papers from a journal(!) through EDAS, which I have an account with, only because many years ago and while I was studying my Bachelor degree, I ...
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2 votes
0 answers
93 views

A predatory journal? [duplicate]

I sent my manuscript to a journal which they accepted for publication without peer review. They asked for a 1000 euro service fee. I requested a withdrawal instead, to which they replied asking ...
  • 29
6 votes
3 answers
383 views

How should I cite something that I saw in a famous internet forum (not Stack Exchange)?

Let me tell you the story. I am a researcher in Mathematics and I have been the past months developing an idea that seems simple but potentially fruitful. The idea is so simple and straightforward ...
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4 votes
1 answer
197 views

How can you compare the quality of conferences?

So I know with journals you can look up the impact factors, but is there any equivalent for conferences? So I'm looking at IEEE's Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence Conference which ...
  • 41
0 votes
2 answers
242 views

Can you file a complaint about editors selling your contact information?

If you are in academia, you might have noticed that your contact information is being sold, sometimes you collaborate with a person with a very specific research line and background and get an ...
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2 votes
0 answers
45 views

How to find out if a journal is predatory? [duplicate]

I am considering the website of this journal and can't really decide if it is a predatory journal or if it is merely a very obscure journal. As far as I am aware, it does look to be a real journal ...
  • 2,565
12 votes
1 answer
761 views

Is conpher.com / conpher legit?

Does anybody know if conpher is a trustworthy organization? I have recently received a couple of emails from jm@conpher.com. The email body says: Congratulations on your new article! We are a group ...
  • 6,299
3 votes
1 answer
253 views

can I submit in a new journal after submission in a predatory journal who force to pay in order to withdraw?

after submission of my article, I realize that it was a predatory journal. I ask to withdraw my manuscript but they require to pay half of charges. what can I do? If I do not pay, can I submit in a ...
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5 votes
1 answer
895 views

If a journal requires "Article Processing fee" does that make it a predatory journal? [duplicate]

If a journal take article processing fee then does that mean the journal is predatory? or there are some other criteria to tell a journal as predatory?
1 vote
1 answer
264 views

Possibly, quick acceptance for publication

Two days ago, a physics journal received my manuscript and today they informed me that the editor and reviewer accepted my manuscript for publication. this is the first time for me publishing a ...
34 votes
2 answers
6k views

What is the best way to publicize the existence of a fraudulent journal?

Earlier this year, I was anonymously informed of the existence of a fraudulent journal, Reactive Oxygen Species. When I investigated, I found that the "Editorial Team" of "international experts" ...
  • 473
2 votes
1 answer
80 views

Submit in journal with no DOIs? [duplicate]

My professor and I have been trying to publish a paper, but it keeps being rejected. A journal emailed my professor asking her to submit the paper to them, but I am not sure it is legitimate. None ...
1 vote
0 answers
299 views

Can anybody vouch for PubSure? [duplicate]

A few days ago I uploaded a pre-print to arXiv. Today I got an email from a service called PubSure offering to evaluate the manuscript with AI (?) and give me a score on how "publishable" (?) it is. ...
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44 votes
5 answers
9k views

Rejection from a legitimate journal, with reviewers recommending me to try a Beall's list journal

Recently I received a rejection by the editor of SCI Expanded journal (which I consider to be a legitimate journal): The reviewer's comments (just a few days after I submitted the manuscript): ...
  • 2,870
3 votes
1 answer
819 views

Is this academic organization a predatory one? [duplicate]

I was reading about this organization that is called SAI (https://thesai.org/) which has a number of journals and conferences indexed in Scopus, but I am a little bit dubious if it should be ...
  • 8,755
14 votes
5 answers
6k views

Is it wise to try to remove myself from predator mailinglists?

A predator journal (Americal Journal of Applied Mathematics) regulary sends me mails about how I should submit to them or join the peer review. Recently I discovered there is a Unsubscribe link in the ...
  • 786
0 votes
2 answers
3k views

Is "Advances in Engineering" a predatory platform? [duplicate]

I have received an e-mail from "Advances in Engineering". Is it a predatory-platform? Is it reputable? ... Dear Dr. XYZ, We are pleased to inform you that Advances in Engineering selection ...
29 votes
3 answers
10k views

Why do vanity journals exist?

I'm confused about the existence of vanity journals. My impression is that they often charge significant sums of money yet provide no peer review, editing, etc. If I want to claim I published ...
  • 715
7 votes
1 answer
544 views

Beall's List of Potential Predatory Publishers on Weebly shutdown?

Most academics would be familiar with Beall's list of Potential Predatory Publishers. His project was shutdown some years ago, with the publicised reason being a "personal decision" (see link above), ...
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1 vote
1 answer
228 views

Conference claims they have indexed proceedings and publisher denies it

There is a conference which says that the proceedings will by published in Springer. Normally, Springer conferences mention the series of the volume that the proceedings will be published (LNCS, CCIS ...
  • 1,925
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

Paper accepted at a probably predatory conference, how shall I proceed?

I'm a college student attending a very prestigious university. I did an independent research during this summer, and I recently submitted my conference paper to an international conference. The ...
  • 63
6 votes
1 answer
626 views

Removing articles from ResearchGate

Over a decade ago, when I was about 11, I fancied myself as budding social scientist and wrote a few "papers" of extremely dubious quality which I uploaded to SSRN. I kept up the interest in ...
2 votes
4 answers
2k views

Turning a conference proceedings into a book chapter. Is it self plagiarism?

I've recently sent some of my research to a local conference entitled "XIX Simpósio Brasileiro de Sensoriamento Remoto". After the conference, I started getting contacted by some publishers asking me ...
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3 votes
2 answers
549 views

What is the difference between predatory publishers and vanity presses?

The University of Sunshine Coast's website gives the difference as: Vanity publishers are publishers that will charge the author a fee for publishing a book ... While similar to vanity publishing, ...
  • 115k
-2 votes
1 answer
178 views

Withdraw my published paper from open access journal [closed]

Because the journal is not recognized by UGC. Kindly please suggest how to withdraw my paper in an open access journal.
67 votes
3 answers
8k views

Has a journal ever switched between being a predatory journal and a reputable one?

There are a lot of questions here on what predatory journals are, and how to tell if a journal is one or not. Are there known cases where a journal has "switched" camps, or where substantial evidence ...