The Murky World of Predatory Publishing

Hemanth A. Baboolal MD, FRCAAssociate Professor of Anesthesiology and Pediatrics, Department of Anesthesiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

A week does not go by when either I or one of my mentees, or former colleagues calls to ask if they should consider writing a paper or editing a special issue for a journal I and I’m sure you have never heard of. My response is always “NO” and it is an expensive waste of time. I received this letter from Dr. Baboolal from the University of North Carolina to explain predatory publishing as today’s PAAD. Myron Yaster MD

When you climb out of bed in the morning, reach for your phone, and reluctantly click on your work email, nothing quite soothes the ego like an email that praises your contributions to the academic world of pediatric anesthesia. “Finally, recognition!” you think to yourself. But then the fog clears, and you notice the ludicrously ebullient greeting (‘Esteemed Doctor!’), the random italics and of course the amusingly creative journal title (‘The Journal of Global Forensic Anesthesiology’).

If you work in an academic hospital, then these early morning emails should sound very familiar. Early morning, because many are sent especially from India and eastern hemisphere countries that are several hours ahead of US time zones. Predatory publishers have managed to identify ‘low-hanging fruit’ at academic institutions, which happen to be assistant and associate professors thirsty for promotion. After all, promotion is accompanied by salary raises and occasionally a leap in status (ah, a new ID badge!) . This demographic is very attractive to predatory publishers, because most academic clinicians have access to juicy departmental funds that will readily pay ‘open-access’ fees. A quick perusal of open-access fees reveals that the amounts are suspiciously close to what most departments allow clinicians in their academic funds.

So what exactly is predatory publishing? In a brutal nutshell it is an exploitative practice that uses the promise of fast, open access publication to extract money from authors and researchers. The phenomenon of "open access predatory publishers" was first noticed by a University of Colorado librarian, Jeffrey Beal in 2008 when he noticed several dubious invitations to join journal editorial boards. The publishers charge high fees, provide little or no peer reviewing, promise rapid publication (“our first special issue next month!”) and usually have a thin veneer of authenticity. However, a little scraping below the surface will often uncover red flags. The editorial boards are filled with academics who often have no qualifications relevant to the purported journal title (a dietician serving as an editor for a surgical journal). The editorial boards resemble a United Nations of pseudonyms. Many hail from prestigious institutes such as Harvard Medical School, Baylor and UCSF to name a few, but sadly many of these academics have either been scammed into thinking they were joining a bona-fide editorial board, or perhaps joined these editorial boards to improve their chances of promotion. A quick Google Earth search of the journal address usually shows an adorable little bungalow in the suburbs of Delhi or Sydney.

The publisher will often have a website listing several journals, but rarely have a website dedicated to the journal in question. High impact factors are listed (4.99!), as well as an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) to lend an air of authenticity. It turns out that it is surprisingly easy to obtain an ISSN number from the Library of Congress. The application requirement for online journals is to simply provide a URL where information about the journals title and other publishing information appear.

We should be careful to note that there are several open-access platforms that are completely legitimate and respectable, but it is up to the author to rigorously verify and investigate before submitting a publication. A decision to withdraw an article under consideration will often be met by hostile email demands for withdrawal fees, and occasionally threats of legal action.

This quagmire of quackery is of our profession’s own making. Academic hospitals demand publications before promotion but provide little time for clinicians to create high quality work. High impact journals are almost impossible to crack and tend to publish articles that have little clinical relevance and are aimed at laboratory specialists (think of all the genetic knock-out mice studies published in Anesthesiology). The good ‘ole boy network is strong in the world of journal publication and hard to crack. I speak from experience, having served on a ‘prestigious’ ASA committee.

Nevertheless, be wary of succumbing to the pressure to publish in these ‘grey’ zone journals. The risks include an adverse effect on one’s personal reputation, the erosion of public trust in academic articles not to mention the possibility that various university departments may decide not to reimburse open access fees.

So, the next time you receive an effusive invitational email from the Journal of Quantum Flatulence, give a little chuckle and instead wire some Bitcoin to the Nigerian Visiting Professor prince who will be arriving next week.

Send your thoughts and comments to Myron who will publish them in a Friday reader response.